Yowza

"Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice."

-- Bethany Hamilton, Female Surfer

It was another eventful but quick appointment with Super Surgeon Dude. The hubs and I were ready for a fight, getting ourselves a little worked up that egos were going to rule the appointment and answers were going to be like pulling teeth. But to our pleasant surprise it was not like that at all and we were reminded of why we like him.

He listened to me while he quickly went to work with his poking and prodding -- we are talking long metal sticks, some sort of instrument with a hook on the end, scopes and lights. So while I tried to talk through my teeth, take deep breaths and break my husband's hand so as not to not punch the surgeon, I explained exactly what has transpired with the pus, how much, color, etc. How I think the gas is related to the abscess and also the problems getting my cath in. And surprisingly he agreed to it all.

He said that I have a small sinus tract or fistula -- basically a tunnel -- that goes from this abscess about an inch above my stoma to a little hole in the top of the stoma. He said the tunnel was small so it wasn't able to get a lot out. He then took some silver nitrate -- he did this two appts ago -- but this time he stuck it in the fistula and cauterized inside as well as outside. He said if this doesn't work, he'll have to go in surgically, clean out the abscess and close up the fistula manually. He went back and forth on prescribing more antibiotics but eventually decided against it.

So how am I feeling. Well dang sore from all the poking, pushing, stabbing of the already irritated area -- it's screaming mad now! I feel good that once again I know my body and I knew something wasn't right. I'm realistic that it would be great if this time the cauterization worked but lets face it, the possibility of this thing magically curing itself now after 10 weeks seems pretty slim. And at least now I know the plan if it doesn't get better and we'll just cross that bridge when we get there.

Just another bump. I sure don't like to do things the easy way and my body is not going to behave without some continued tantrums. Comical really.

Off to take a nap, it's been a long day already...