Lump drama

Lump did not, in fact, keep it together.

Over the last week I've been both concerned about and frustrated by Lump. I had a few consecutive days where it was constantly itchy and/or painful, which was wearing me down. I still had so many weeks to go until my scheduled appointments, and I was not looking forward to being perpetually uncomfortable for at least month. Thankfully it eased off for a few days, but then it started acting up again on Friday. By Friday night it was swollen and red and looked particularly angry.

Late Friday night I woke up drenched, and immediately knew what had happened. Sure enough, Lump had burst and released a shocking amount of pus. I didn’t feel capable of dealing with anything at 3am, so I just cleaned up and went back to bed and decided it could be a tomorrow problem. In the morning it was still oozing an appalling amount of pus, so we reached out to my doctor, who fortunately had given me his cell phone for emergencies. Given the sudden escalation in symptoms and obvious signs of infection, he decided we couldn’t wait for my scheduled appointments, and it was time to be admitted to the hospital to fast track things and start IV antibiotics. So off to HUP we went!

The big advantage of being in the hospital is that I don't have to sit around waiting for appointments. They sent me for an updated CT scan, and took cultures of the disgustingness that was draining out of me so they can finally identify the infection and determine the best course of treatment. They also got me started on both an IV and oral antibiotic that they hope will be effective against whatever I have. They’re currently debating whether or not I need an MRI, and working on scheduling surgery to clean out the infection and finally evict Lump. They MIGHT manage to get me in by Friday, but that's unclear because they’re trying to have both my transplant surgeon and a plastic surgeon be involved in the procedure, so that’s 2 busy schedules to coordinate. In any event, I will definitely be getting things taken care of MUCH faster than originally planned!

Unfortunately, my veins have been particularly terrible thus far. My first IV went bad in less than 2 hours, before they even had a chance to run anything though it. My second IV did better, but still didn’t even last a day. And both of those IVs took 2 tries each to get in. Thankfully, IV #3 went in on the first try. Here’s hoping it has more staying power than the first 2 did!

So right now I'm in the wait and see part of this hospital stay. Waiting to get the results back from my cultures and determine a treatment plan, and waiting to see when they can schedule surgery. But at least now the wait will be MUCH shorter than it would’ve been as an outpatient!