As hoped Doug was discharged from Livingston St Johns last Sunday (5th Feb) and is safely resettled at home.
Douglas has now had all the staples removed from his head wound (if that's the correct term) - all 47 of them!! He asked the nurse if he could have them to take home. Why she said .... want to use them to staple my documents he said!!!! Now that is Douglas for you ........
He assures us all that removal was not at all painfull, thanks to the skill of nurse and her wonderful line of chat :-) I suspect both Sheena and I 'felt' it more !!
The healing process is now well under way although, unfortunately, a small part is weeping rather badly which means repeated dressing replacement and two weeks of a powerful anti-biotic. All a bit of a pain really.
We have daily visits by the District Nurse who does the dressing change. This is a great relief since, to us, any supturation looks dramatic and worrying and she can assess and evaluate much better.
Things are getting better day by day.
The important part, the eye, is fine and looking good and the specialist is very pleased. Doug goes back to see her in a couple of weeks.
To look at Doug now, aside from the head dressing, it is hard to believe that he has had such intrusive surgery to the head and face. I think we had all expected much more bruising and swelling - a tribute to the skill of the plastic surgeon I feel.
He has coped really well with the whole procedure and can still have a good crack about things like 'there are not many that have a tap in the heid' !
He also jokes about how difficult it is to bandage the head, especially from ear to ear! The nurses have come up with an ingenious solution to holding dressings in place! A pair of elasticated mesh pants over the head, with the leg openings knotted!!!! Keep this quiet ....... Doug will do me an injury if he hears it is public knowledge :-(
(Superman wore his underwear over his trousers ..... SuperDuper man wears them over his head - ho, ho, ho - yeah right!!!!)
In a couple of weeks I think he'll be able to get back to his gym exercises and his bike training but we'll just have to be a bit careful not to overdo it initially.
In the meantime he is looking forward to being able to wear his reading specs comfortably ..... a bit sore behind the ears right now ...... and being able to read using his Kobo ebook reader again. As he says, if it takes much longer, he'll have to start at the beginning of the book again!! Exageration I'm sure, but I can understand his frustration.
By the bye, the Kobo Reader is a wonderful thing for anyone who has problems reading conventional books because the font type and size can be tailored to that most suitable for the reader. We were able to find the right size and font using his laptop computer and then download them to the Reader.
Whether or not this was the intention of the Kobo software folk ... VERY WELL DONE. You have just made reading once again an enjoyable passtime for one young man.
Iain (the auld yin)
Friday 10 February 2012
Thursday 26 January 2012
EYE to the front
As you will know if you've read the last post, Douglas has left eye problems and the long term prognosis was very poor. The Opthalmology doctor looking after him had, in mid 2011, identified a technique which, from trials in the USA, appeared to have a good possibility of significantly reducing the long term deterioration of the eye by restoring sensation to the eye ball.
After much discussion and debate, Doug decided that he wanted the procedure to be carried out and, in due course, a date was set for the 24th January 2012 in the Plastic Surgery department of St Johns Hospital, Livingston.
So, having had the Op., how are things going .................
The operation itself has been declared a success in that the surgical (plastic surgery) elements went smoothly and the nerve implant into his left eye ball was achieved with no evident problems. Unfortunately the whole operation lasted a lot longer than had been anticipated (9 and a half hours rather than 6).
As a consequence of this, Doug developed pressure sores on both buttocs and a really sore back.
As he says you go in to have your head opened up, and what hurts when its all done ....... your bum!!!
Seriously though this has been (and still is) a really painful aspect of his recovery, particularly since, in order to reduce post op swelling of his face and eye, he has had to lie in bed in a semi reclined position which puts increased pressure on lower back and bottom.
Regrettably he also developed quite serious congestion of his upper respiratory tract and to ease his breathing a more upright position is necessary.
So when we saw him on the evening of the op (Tuesday at about 10pm) he was still a bit woosy and not at all comfortable and as a result got no sleep that night.
The following night (Wednesday) was equally bad, despite frequent nebuliser applications to ease his breathing and a number of a pain killer meds. It was really quite upsetting to see him in such a distressed and painful condition - we felt so damned helpless.
Fortunately the Doctor managed to find a much more effective pain killer during the night and Doug did, at last, manage to get some rest.
When we visited to-day (Thursday) he seemed in much better spirits and, although the pressure sores were still painful, they appeared to be tolerable. During the day his catheter was removed, as was the venflon in his left arm. He appeared much more comfortable and despite being, as he put it, a bit antisocial, things seemed to be improving. It all went a bit downhill come late evening when, on going to bed, his breathing difficulties suddenly started and he became very distressed. However, after a nebuliser, a pain killer and a fair bit of position changing, he had settled more by the time we left at 9:30pm.
We have no clear indication of when he will be discharged although there was talk of Friday (to-morrow!) because surgically he has done really well. However there remain the breathing issues (we have no nebuliser facilities at home!) and the pressure sores (we don't have access to the appropriate strength of pain killer). Added to this, he would be sleeping on a conventional bed with no real adjustment for reclining.
So I think this is where we have to start thinking of our own health and well being..
Personally I think he will not be discharged before Saturday but ..........
As to the future -
He has wound running over the top of his head from left ear to right ear which has about 4 staples per inch of length! (and a rather peculiar hair do into the bargain!) These will have to come out in about 10 days and this will require a further hospital visit I guess.
He has an appointment Wednesday next week at the Eye Hospital with Jan Kerr, the opthalmology surgeon who was part of the operating team.
I guess, at some point we will have an appointment with his hair dresser (!!!!) to see what can be done to restore his good looks!
But seriously though, since this was the first ever operation of this type done in the UK, I guess he will be monitored frequently and his condition will be of great interest to the surgeons involved.
As regards the possibility of visiting ..........
I honestly think we must wait until he becomes much more comfortable in himself.
I have no idea just how long this may take although I hope it will not be long.
I shall use this Blog to keep you all advised. Of course, when Doug gets home he will be back on FaceBook and Hotmail just as soon as he can so keep the msgs coming but excuse answer delays please!
In the meantime Doug has asked me to thank everyone for their good wishes, their get well cards (all of which I am definitly going to keep safe :-) ) and their texts.
Personally I'd also like to add my sincere thanks. Dougs friendships are so important to his psycological well being ... enough said.
Watch this space for more ............................................
Iain (the auld yin!)
PS If anyone is interested I think I still have the web link to the medical journal papers describing the procedure. Just let me know if .......
After much discussion and debate, Doug decided that he wanted the procedure to be carried out and, in due course, a date was set for the 24th January 2012 in the Plastic Surgery department of St Johns Hospital, Livingston.
So, having had the Op., how are things going .................
The operation itself has been declared a success in that the surgical (plastic surgery) elements went smoothly and the nerve implant into his left eye ball was achieved with no evident problems. Unfortunately the whole operation lasted a lot longer than had been anticipated (9 and a half hours rather than 6).
As a consequence of this, Doug developed pressure sores on both buttocs and a really sore back.
As he says you go in to have your head opened up, and what hurts when its all done ....... your bum!!!
Seriously though this has been (and still is) a really painful aspect of his recovery, particularly since, in order to reduce post op swelling of his face and eye, he has had to lie in bed in a semi reclined position which puts increased pressure on lower back and bottom.
Regrettably he also developed quite serious congestion of his upper respiratory tract and to ease his breathing a more upright position is necessary.
So when we saw him on the evening of the op (Tuesday at about 10pm) he was still a bit woosy and not at all comfortable and as a result got no sleep that night.
The following night (Wednesday) was equally bad, despite frequent nebuliser applications to ease his breathing and a number of a pain killer meds. It was really quite upsetting to see him in such a distressed and painful condition - we felt so damned helpless.
Fortunately the Doctor managed to find a much more effective pain killer during the night and Doug did, at last, manage to get some rest.
When we visited to-day (Thursday) he seemed in much better spirits and, although the pressure sores were still painful, they appeared to be tolerable. During the day his catheter was removed, as was the venflon in his left arm. He appeared much more comfortable and despite being, as he put it, a bit antisocial, things seemed to be improving. It all went a bit downhill come late evening when, on going to bed, his breathing difficulties suddenly started and he became very distressed. However, after a nebuliser, a pain killer and a fair bit of position changing, he had settled more by the time we left at 9:30pm.
We have no clear indication of when he will be discharged although there was talk of Friday (to-morrow!) because surgically he has done really well. However there remain the breathing issues (we have no nebuliser facilities at home!) and the pressure sores (we don't have access to the appropriate strength of pain killer). Added to this, he would be sleeping on a conventional bed with no real adjustment for reclining.
So I think this is where we have to start thinking of our own health and well being..
Personally I think he will not be discharged before Saturday but ..........
As to the future -
He has wound running over the top of his head from left ear to right ear which has about 4 staples per inch of length! (and a rather peculiar hair do into the bargain!) These will have to come out in about 10 days and this will require a further hospital visit I guess.
He has an appointment Wednesday next week at the Eye Hospital with Jan Kerr, the opthalmology surgeon who was part of the operating team.
I guess, at some point we will have an appointment with his hair dresser (!!!!) to see what can be done to restore his good looks!
But seriously though, since this was the first ever operation of this type done in the UK, I guess he will be monitored frequently and his condition will be of great interest to the surgeons involved.
As regards the possibility of visiting ..........
I honestly think we must wait until he becomes much more comfortable in himself.
I have no idea just how long this may take although I hope it will not be long.
I shall use this Blog to keep you all advised. Of course, when Doug gets home he will be back on FaceBook and Hotmail just as soon as he can so keep the msgs coming but excuse answer delays please!
In the meantime Doug has asked me to thank everyone for their good wishes, their get well cards (all of which I am definitly going to keep safe :-) ) and their texts.
Personally I'd also like to add my sincere thanks. Dougs friendships are so important to his psycological well being ... enough said.
Watch this space for more ............................................
Iain (the auld yin!)
PS If anyone is interested I think I still have the web link to the medical journal papers describing the procedure. Just let me know if .......
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