Friday 10th January
Infection Team came round to see me and said they hadn’t grown anything at that stage. With Infection they take different samples from different levels of tissue, then there are two growing processes over different amounts of days. I told them that I was most worried about the E. Coli still being present as is was the most aggressive bacteria I had before. They told me it looked like there was a possibility they could be growing that but they wouldn’t know for sure till after the weekend.
Because it was superficial they asked me if I’d been scratching the wound or anything like that. I told them the skin was constantly dry and I was having to put cream on it all the time. If I forgot or didn’t do that the skin would flake or crack, which did become itchy and at times I did scratch or rub the area. Having worked in Hospitals though I know about keeping things sterile and avoiding open wounds etc. so did my best to keep it as clean as possible.
Weekend
Because of the Cannula issue after surgery they removed the larger one and had put one in the crease of my right arm. This left one for the PCA (Patient Controlled Analgesia) and one for the IV (Intravenous) antibiotics. I then had problems with the cannula in my hand so it was removed and left just the one in my arm, which the PCA was attached to. This meant that for an hour – while I was receiving my antibiotics – I couldn’t give myself any pain relief during that time. In the end we switched to liquid Oxynorm that I could have every 4 hours and allowed me to come off the PCA.
Sunday afternoon the Physio came round and I asked if I could get up. I asked if we could have a go transferring out into the wheelchair and then going over and transferring to the toilet. The En Suite in this bay is slightly smaller than they bay I was in before, this just meant adjusting how I did things slightly but managed OK. Because the Physio was happy with my transfers it meant I could have my catheter removed but the Nurse said it would be better to wait till the next day to have it taken out.
All in all it was, as most weekends are, pretty quiet and I managed to sleep through most of it.
