Advertisement
Published: October 8th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Wound Watch 6
A week after the operation and the grafted skin has split down the middle and detached from teh edge. At this stage it is still possible for this skin to attach itself and prevent any further operation. So far most of my blogs have been pretty upbeat and positive and dare I say entertaining, however, it wouldn't be a true reflection of my travel experience if I didn't include a brief blog about how I've been feeling from time to time as I spend longer and longer in this hospital. So as a pre-warning to those of you planning on reading this blog, you're unlikely to find it at all entertaining, unless you revil in my displeasure as I'm sure some of you do (Cat). Read on only if you interested in the 'lows' as well as the previous 'highs' of my travels.
After my infection was diagnosed and I was admitted to hospital on Koh Sumui it was obvious that I wasn't going to get the chance to do my diving with Jack and Co on Koh Toa as I'd planned, this was obviously upsetting, but I was more concerned about getting properly healed. It also meant that I wasn't going to make my flight to Vietnam, but since I'd allowed myself 7.5 weeks to travel up through Vietnam, into Laos then into Chang Mai in the North of Thailand, this wasn't a big deal. I
could still see the places I'd planned to and do my diving at a later stage.
When I first arrived on Koh Sumui the docotor who treated me, mainly due to a language barrier, never properly explained the full extent of the procedure for treating an infection of this kind. I was discharged from hospital after a week under the impression that all that remained before I was healthy and able to travel again was a week of rest so that the flesh of my wound could grow back; fine, I could spend this on Koh Toa (where I was supposed to have been whilst in hospital), followed by a
minor skin grafting operation (see previous blog:
Back to Hospital) before being discharged to spend a week taking it easy and recovering. Again, not so bad as I could alter my original plans and visit Chang Mai in N.Thailand during this time. This would mean I still got to see all the places I'd planned and only lost a week of travel for Laos/Vietnam, the places I was realy keen to see.
The week on Koh Toa was nice, but all there wasn't much for me to do, I wasn't able to dive or snorkle as I would of liked to. I arrived into Bangkok expecting to spend a couple of days here getting my graft done before heading to Chang Mai in N.Thailand and then onto Laos/Vietnam. However, after my operation I realised I would be in here for about a week. Then after a week, I was told I would be here another week........ and then another. The knee is an awkward place to have a skin graft done as it is practically impossible to prevent some movement, as a result the skin from the graft split (Wound Watch 6) and failed to join properly.
Evey two days the doctor comes to see me and first the skin had split, but he left it to see if it would still join, since a minimum of about 50%!a(MISSING)ttached skin is sufficient to prevent the need for another graft. He kept leaving it to see if it would join, visiting me every other day until it had became obvious that the graft wasn't sucessful as only about 15-20%!o(MISSING)f the grafted skin remained on my knee.
So after being admitted to hospital expecting to be out after 3/4 days, I am still here after 3 weeks with an unsucessful operation. The most frustrating thing is that I had planned my original trip with the time I had very well, seeing all the places I wanted to with a decent amount of time to do them. But at every stage of this knee incident the outcome has always been worse than I was expecting requiring me to be in here longer and longer and forcing me to continually alter my travel plans, missing out on things I'd had originally planned on seeing/doing. Each day that passes is a day which I should be spending travelling, not in a hospital.
But... .........After I finished writing this entry, but before I had a chance to publish it I met a Irish woman in the hospital, she is here with her family visiting her son and his friend who were in the Phuket plane crash. I went to visit him in his room and stayed a couple of hours chatting and I've now had one of those moments where things are suddenly put into perspective. Mum and Dad have been reminding me on the phone since I've been here 'oh it could be worse for me' and even though I knew that was true, it hadn't stopped me feeling down and depressed from time to time, it wasn't until I met William that I realised how true that was. It's one thing to be told there are people out there worse off than you, of course there are, but it is another thing to meet them. Where I have an area on my upper thigh about 5cm by 10cm from where the doctor removed skin for the graft, William has had the top layer of skin from his entire thigh removed to use for grafting his lower legs, both arms and hands. He has had an operation everyday since he has been here, he has a pot of pills three times larger than mine, he is bed bound with a broken bone in his back (not paralysed) and casts on both legs and arms.
I chatted with him and he told me about the crash, seeing dead passengers all around him and having to kick a hole in the side of the plane and jump through fire to get out. His friend who was with him, also in the hospital here, is in a worse condition than him and has been having serious withdrawls from the copious amounts of morphine they've had to give him up until now. Another patient in the hospital from Phuket who survived lost his fiance who was sitting next to him.
So yes, there is someone far worse off than me and he'd been in the room above me for two weeks. I told William I wish I'd known that, I wouldn't of felt so sorry for myself the past two weeks.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.203s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 65; dbt: 0.0563s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Mumsy
non-member comment
enough
Ok Rob enoughs enough can we have some pictures of the nurses, your food, the walls, ceiling and floor but no more flesh!!!!