It has been nearly 3 weeks since my Rib resection , decompression surgery i.e removing my first rib and scooping out the nasties and I am feeling positive , it may not be perfect nor relieve all my symptoms but I feel at this moment in time content that I can climb this mountain whether adapting or not.
This type of surgery is never taken lightly due to quite a lot of risks involved especially when you have a shoulder girdle like mine , however due to my symptoms and the way it has affected my life the benefits outweighed the risks especially when you are luckily enough to have a consultant vascular surgeon like mine , Mr Edwards , who was also joined by another incredible consultant vascular surgeon Mr Caruana , so basically I had the A-Team !
So surgery went really well however classic Katie likes to throw in a curve ball having a seizure during recovery , I clearly liked being there so decided to stay an extra 8 hours I believe before going to the Vascular ward Level 8 Thomas Kemp Tower ? who knows I haven't the foggiest.
Thumbs up to the Big C (grey cannula) and little C (pink cannula) for keeping me happy and miss catheter who helped avoid any UTIs hallelujah , Note: try not to forget its there … The day after surgery I was up and walking with all my little friends and a lovely physiotherapist , healing was going really well , unfortunately it wasn't long before I had another funny turn , my face went all tingly like ants crawling all over my face , my hearing went and my extremities lost feeling and felt cold much after that was very vague , next thing I know some lovely but random people a.k.a nurses I believe (I was rather confused) by my bedside , very embarrassing !!!
The plan was to be discharged within 3-4 days and although the episodes were getting less severe I was still having them and it was not safe for me to leave, the neurosurgeons came to see me and they confirmed all my vital signs and nogging were fine which meant they believed that it was either an interaction with my medication or it could be stress induced so monitoring was whats was needed.
On another note here is my little buddy Percy a.k.a the Reddon wound drainage vac bottle that was inserted near the cavity where my rib was removed to avoid infection by sucking out blood and other sort of fluid , we managed to get 300ml out of this nugget Before he was removed , umm probably the worse experience to date , PICC line application without anaesthetic hasn't got a touch on this experience , not only did it sound like a burst inner-tube it hurt like hell BUT it did serve as a very important role in recovery and that I thank-you Percy , also another reminder take Percy with you to the loo as it is stuck to you !
After a week on the super level 8 TKT I finally was allowed to leave , its was the first step to the summit of this mountain 🏔. Since I have been home I have been sensible by resting and trying to focus my mind on other things rather than sliding slowly down a crevasse into self-destruction , I attempted re-creating the Matterhorn out of lego (lack of talent unfortunately ) , Game of thrones marathon and spending time looking at careers , writing blogs and applying for a paracycling license. Almost 3 weeks on and I finally got back on the bike and spun my legs for 30mins and did it feel bloody incredible ! Here's to more steps up this mountain
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