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Opinionated Bean

Tag Archives: health

Nearly a year Ago

13 Thursday Nov 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in health

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

family, friends, health, me, surgery

… I had my big uber surgery. I will be having a little drink with friends next weekend to celebrate my surviving the surgery.

A lot of changes have gone on in my life in the past 18 months – the surgery being one of them. Another was losing my job at Airmiles. I admit I was devasted by the job loss, especially as I was trying to nail down a surgical date; which made it difficult to find a new job as I couldn’t give a definitive date for the surgery. Luckily I did find a temporary placement at Corus Entertainment, which kept me going financially and mentally until a month prior to surgery. My time at Corus did wonders in rebuilding my confidence in my professional skills, which helped in not overstressing my body prior to the big slicing.

The surgery, as those who have read my blog entries, was brutal. I got through it all with a lot of support from my parental units and my brother. As well, friends checking up on me while I was in hospital – Cassie & Stu, Mike, Puck, Brian, Lydia, Andrew, Rebecca. And when I got out a lot of words of support from friends both far and near.

What I did notice is that those who have called themselves my friends really fall into two-camps – true friends and fair weather friends, the former I appreciate and adore and the latter I no longer make an effort to maintain a semblance of a friendship –if they want to talk or get together with me, that’s fine, but I am no longer prepared to expend the energy to do so, it’s better spent on other endeavours.

Those who call themselves my friends, but who I consider to be fair-weather friends, are those who couldn’t be bothered to see if I was okay. Individuals who cannot be bothered or do not want to be bothered with expressing concern if I have a kidney infection, suffering through MRSA, a really bad UTI, being put on a respirator because I went unconscious for 5 days right after surgery. But if I am smiling and seem happy than they are fine with talking with me, and trying to enjoy happy moments.

This surgery opened up my eyes to who are my true friends, to who I want to spend time with. The surgery also made me realise how fleeting life is, and it’s just not worth chasing after people who cannot be bothered to pay attention to me unless there’s something in it for them.

One Year Ago…almost

13 Thursday Nov 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in Uncategorized

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Tags

friends, health, hospital, surgery, survival

… I had my big uber surgery. I will be having a little drink with friends next weekend to celebrate my surviving the surgery.

A lot of changes have gone on in my life in the past 18 months – the surgery being one of them. Another was losing my job at Airmiles. I admit I was devasted by the job loss, especially as I was trying to nail down a surgical date; which made it difficult to find a new job as I couldn’t give a definitive date for the surgery. Luckily I did find a temporary placement at Corus Entertainment, which kept me going financially and mentally until a month prior to surgery. My time at Corus did wonders in rebuilding my confidence in my professional skills, which helped in not overstressing my body prior to the big slicing.

The surgery, as those who have read my blog entries, was brutal. I got through it all with a lot of support from my parental units and my brother. As well, friends checking up on me while I was in hospital – Cassie & Stu, Mike, Puck, Brian, Lydia, Andrew, Rebecca. And when I got out a lot of words of support from friends both far and near.

What I did notice is that those who have called themselves my friends really fall into two-camps – true friends and fair weather friends, the former I appreciate and adore and the latter I no longer make an effort to maintain a semblance of a friendship –if they want to talk or get together with me, that’s fine, but I am no longer prepared to expend the energy to do so, it’s better spent on other endeavours.

Those who call themselves my friends, but who I consider to be fair-weather friends, are those who couldn’t be bothered to see if I was okay. Individuals who cannot be bothered or do not want to be bothered with expressing concern if I have a kidney infection, suffering through MRSA, a really bad UTI, being put on a respirator because I went unconscious for 5 days right after surgery. But if I am smiling and seem happy than they are fine with talking with me, and trying to enjoy happy moments.

This surgery opened up my eyes to who are my true friends, to who I want to spend time with. The surgery also made me realise how fleeting life is, and it’s just not worth chasing after people who cannot be bothered to pay attention to me unless there’s something in it for them.

Stoma

30 Tuesday Sep 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in health

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

health, muko, stoma, stomacare

I have decided to go “commando” with my stoma – that means that at night I do not put any dressing over the stoma. Lately I’ve been having a problem with chafed skin, sometimes breaking. I put this down to the MUKO (surgical jelly which has an alcohol base) and the StomaCare wipes I use…plus the tape; all of them are drying my skin out. And I can’t put regular moisturiser near my “rosebud” (my knickname for the stoma) so airing out is the way to go. Seems to be working – Kim checked on it this past Sunday and the skin seemed to look better.

Yay Rosebud!

My Hole

22 Monday Sep 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in health

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Add new tag, health, hole

Kim, my nurse, showed up today to check on any potential damage done to my hole while I was away on holidays.

Good news! The hole is closed and Kim will be discharging me this coming Friday.

Huzzah!

The Hole

12 Tuesday Aug 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in health

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

health, hole, incision, nurse, surgery

Kim measured it today and I now have to share the happy news – which hopefully should make Geeklawyer sigh with relief and gratitude.

The hole has gone from 1.8cm to 1.2c in the space of a week.

If I didn’t jiggle too much I would be prancing about like a fairy.

Kim, my nurse

11 Monday Aug 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in health

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Tags

health, incision, nurse, wound

… she is sick. She was all shivery last night, while doing my dressing. I am a little concerned as her next visit was to an ER to get herself taken care of. She couldn’t visit me on Saturday for the dressing – she had such severe stomach cramps, claiming she might have food poisoning, so I got a funny little serbian man named Alex.

On a bright note, Kim found it extremely difficult to insert all the gauze into my hole. This is great news for me as it appears that the course of treatment recommended by the Wound Care Nurse is working. Ruthie, Deviant Chaperon, Geeklawyer – you may possibly not have the sheer delight of viewing my surgical incisions on a daily basis while I am visiting you three.

Wound Care Nurse, part deux

06 Wednesday Aug 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in health

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

betadine, gauze, health, nurse, surgery, wound care nurse

I have received the report from the Wound Care Nurse, who came early last week to assess my “hole” and recommend any different course of treatment.

What I have to do is take multivitamins (already doing that), vitamin C (will start doing that) and zinc (will start doing that). What my nurse has to do is to stop using the “actecote”  which is a gauze coated in silver nitrate. Instead she is to use regular gauze, soaked in betadine. She also to loosely pack the hole. The findings were that my nurse is packing the hole too tightly which is restricting, possibly, the ability of my hole to close – as there is no room for it to heal.

Kim, today, loosely packed the hole; and has followed all the other recommendations of the Wound Care Nurse. Hopefully there will be some improvement soon. I’ve been sitting at a hole depth of 1.8cm for nearly 8 weeks now.

Wound Care Nurse

25 Friday Jul 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

health, hole, incision, nurse, surgery, wound

Huzzah! I have an appointment on Monday for a Wound Care Nurse to take a look at my wee little hole that refuses, rather stubbornly, to close.

Hopefully she can recommend a treatment program for the hole so that it can close much more quickly.

I swear, the pace of closure of this pesky hole is slower than a snail taking a leisurely stroll through a strawberry patch.

Hole

20 Sunday Jul 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in health

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Tags

dressing, health, hole, surgery

damn it, it’s still 1.8cm.

Geeklawyer, Ruthie, Cantrell – be prepared! Looks like I might be needing help with the dressing.

Respirators

20 Sunday Jul 2008

Posted by opinionatedbean in health

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

health, hospital, surgery

… I never knew this, but it seems while I was in ICU during the time of my surgery I was on a respirator.. COOL!!!

I was having dinner with Diresquirrel, Lydia, Mr Andrew and the munchkins tonight. We were discussing, after dinner, how someone can feel quite icky with regards to surgery (not the patient themselves, but the patient’s family). That’s when Squirrel said I was on a respirator in ICU… wacky, explains why I had a bit of a sore throat for a few days after being returned to the regular ward.

I have to admit, now that I know I wish my parents had done the typical Lithuanian thing – taken pictures. Maybe cameras were not allowed in ICU. Squirrel says I looked very pale and cold, my head flung back with the respirator tube down my throat.

I’m intrigued 😀

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