The never-ending saga of Leggie 2.0

I was so proud of myself. I didn't whine when I had my two leg surgeries. Sure, they were uncomfortable and they inconvenienced me, but they really were far easier than I had expected, and I was grateful. The right leg (the first surgery) has healed amazingly! The scar is small and is bound to fade away to almost nothing. All in all, the whole experience has been pretty positive. Below is evidence of smooth-sailing.



That's all over now. One word -- infection. Yup, the site of my second surgery is infected. It's runny and gross and, according to my orthopedist/surgeon and his new physician's assistant, it smells like feet. Apparently, that's a sign of a particular bacteria.

Here's how it went down. Skip this paragraph if you're easily grossed out or are eating dinner. Okay, I went to the doc Monday for what was supposed to be my final follow-up appointment. I even brought some muffins for my doc and his awesome receptionist to thank them and say goodbye (I've been their patient for over a year now). BUT, when the doc took the steri-strips off of the cut, it exploded. Goo everywhere. The looks on the doc and PA's faces were a touch worrisome. They were seriously freaked out. They stammered amongst themselves, squeezed it, smelled it (what a horrible job!), squeezed it some more, pulled the edges apart (the whole length was open and you could see down into my leg -- the incision had basically not healed at all), and discussed some options. They mentioned giving me an immediate antibiotic IV, mass doses of drugs (varying depending on what kind of bacteria it was), and scheduling me for surgery the next day to open it and clean it out.

Thankfully, they went for the relatively most conservative approach -- drugs. So now, I'm on a crazy huge dose of Augmentin (1000 mg twice a day! Thank heavens I don't have a negative reaction to amoxicillin -- I hear it can be pretty awful) to try to knock out the nastiness. I go back to the doc on Friday to get it checked out. If the drugs have done their duty, yay! If not, I "get" to go back into surgery Tuesday to get it opened up and cleaned out. Charming.

Meanwhile, I'm taking photos once a day when I change the dressing so that I can track the healing. My doc called today to check on it/make sure Wound (its nickname) hadn't exploded again or begun attacking small animals and children.

I wasn't prepared for this stuff. And I'm afraid that I haven't handled it in the best way possible. I have become super grumpy. Yesterday, I was so whiny that my office mate brought me lunch to try to cheer me up. I can't deal with the idea that there is this extended family of bacteria hanging out in my leg. It's just really disturbing. So, fingers crossed that Wound makes a hasty farewell, never to be seen again. Goodbye, and good riddance!