Totally Tubular Take Two

Thursday was finally the day to get drainage tube number two out. I've been anxiously awaiting this day, hoping that it will alleviate the hip pain and be the last of Mr. Abscess.

Once again, the hubs and I trekked on down to SD on Thursday morning. I've been trying to be cautiously optimistic about this whole thing, especially considering yellow pus was still coming out around the drainage tube and I am still having the pain over my right hip. I kept telling myself the pus was because of the wound and the pain was because the tube was irritating things inside. But I couldn't and still can't let myself totally get excited that this might actually be over. That may seem negative, but if you had my track record and the still present symptoms you'd understand.

But I digress. We got to SSD's office right on time, which I love when we time it perfectly (yes I'm OCD about this kind of stuff.) While we were waiting, I saw a man in his 30s come out with the same little spiral notebook I got on my first visit with SSD and I knew he had had a consult about a K-pouch. With heaviness I heard him tell the receptionist, "He had some tough decisions to make." When I heard this my heart sank and I got teary eyed, because I knew what he was going through. I wanted to jump up and talk to him, but I refrained.

We were called back by SSD's wonderful and patient nurse and we all joked about how our car must drive itself down there by now. I got up on the familiar table and waited. (It's probably important to point out at this point that I forgot to take or bring any pain meds so I was flying solo on this one.)

SSD came in all jolly and went to put his gloves on. He says to his nurse, "Did the size of the gloves change? I can barely get my hands in these mediums." We thought this was freaking hilarious, you might have had to be there.

He went to snip the first stitch and something must have spurted out because he quickly and kind of forcefully covered the area with some gauze and had a funny look on his face. Then it happened, he took hold of the little rubber drainage tube and literally YANKED it out. He had to pull last time, but not like this.

The shear force and the popping noise it made when it finally came out made us all jump a little bit. And because the exit was accompanied by spurting blood and pus we all started laughing, even SSD and his nurse. Not sure what was so surprising, but I guess that tube was lodged in there pretty good. It was about 2 inches deep and had a little balloon on the bottom to help the force of the drainage. Hubs says the balloon was about the size of a jelly belly/gummy bear (yum two of my favorite candies!)

Anyway we were all laughing and SSD asked if I had seen the hubs face. Apparently he jumped back a bit with a look of surprise/horror and made a little UGH noise. This made us all laugh a little more. Hey I guess it's good we can laugh about all of this, rather than cry.

I was immediately nauseous, feeling the throbbing set in and while SSD was poking around with his sharp stick and then used some silver nitrate, I tried by hardest not to toss my cookies (I succeeded.) After I was covered up with gauze, it dawned on SSD that maybe that young man I had seen was still out there for me to talk to. I said I'd seen him and had really wanted to talk to him. This poor guy has been dealing with incontinence and other problems with his j-pouch for 14 years and desperately could benefit from a k-pouch. SSD was so surprised that he wasn't jumping for joy and ready to schedule. I told him I would be more than happy to talk to him and so SSD is going to pass my contact info along.

I understand exactly where this guy is coming from and I know how important it was for me to talk to someone who'd really been there while I was making my decision. And in reality if you've lived one way for 14 years, no matter how miserable, making such a big decision is very hard. I hope he calls me, I'll give it to him straight, the good, the bad and the ugly. But hopefully he'll see that the k-pouch will give him so much of his life back. Is it a perfect option, well no, the perfect option would be a magic pill that fixes everything, makes you pain free and lets you poo like a normal person. But for me, it was the next best thing and although I'm having trouble with this abscess, I HEART my k-pouch more than anything and will do whatever it takes to keep it!

Ok, off my soap box now. What's next for me, well SSD we just wait. I rest the next couple of days (yesterday was a rough one.) He couldn't say why I was till having yellow pus or the pain, he's hoping same as me that they'll disappear now that the tube is out. I go back in a few weeks. So as usual we are in the waiting game. I'm hoping by early next week the trauma of the removal will subside and I can see some improvements. Until then...