Recovery

Thankfully surgery went well! Much to my surprise my surgeon actually found and removed the suture that could be the source of these infections, so that was great news! I felt pretty rough immediately afterwards, but one dose of oxycodone later I was MUCH better. Things went pretty well most of the day on Friday until they had to mess with the wound. This time they did not stitch it up and instead packed it with gauze, so it was uncomfortable when they unpacked and replaced the gauze. I’ve also been getting eardrops for my ongoing ear issues, which requires laying flat on my side for a while so the drops can go through the ear tube and into my inner ear. Fortunately I don’t have to lay on my surgical site, but even laying on the other side tugs on and exacerbates things. So I’ve been taking oxycodone to deal with that, which means I’ve been sleeping A LOT. Which is one way to pass the time here.
 
The current plan is to put a wound VAC (Vacuum Assisted Closure) on the surgical site, likely on Monday. Apparently that’s a special dressing that’s attached to a pump, which removes pressure from the wound. This helps pull fluid from the wound, pulls the edges of the wound together, and promotes tissue growth to help it close. I’ve never had a wound VAC before, but it’s not supposed to hurt, and I’m able to go home with it. They have different size pumps, some which need to be attached to an IV pole, and some which can be carried around in your pocket. I’m obviously hoping for pocket sized, but I won’t know until it gets here.
 
The other big news is that they found more antibiotics for me! They actually found THREE antibiotics aside from Tobramycin, which is much better than last time! I was actually pretty worried about whether they would find more antibiotics, so that was a HUGE relief. They started me on one before surgery, but it turned out the homecare company couldn’t accommodate that one, so they switched me to another one. And in the end they decided that since my surgeon was able to clean things out so well, I only need one antibiotic this time. The schedule is a little annoying because each dose needs to run for 3 hours, so 3 times a day I’m chained to an IV pole for a while. But I’ve been through way worse infusion schedules that hardly allowed for any sleep, so I’ll take 3 time a day!
 
Now that surgery is done and my antibiotic is settled, we’re just waiting on the wound VAC. Then I’ll be able to finish up however long they want me on the wound VAC and complete the remainder of my 2 week course of IV antibiotics at home. I already met with a nurse from the home infusion company, and they’re ready to go as soon as my team approves discharge. The only catch is that they can only come out to get me started during my afternoon dose, since they can’t really send out a nurse at 6am or 10pm. If my team isn’t ready to discharge me early enough to get home for a 2pm dose, we have to wait until the next day. I highly doubt they’ll be able to pull everything together for a Monday discharge, but hopefully Tuesday will be the day!