Tuesday 17 March 2015

X-ray




 
Having had two rather large operations on my neck within a month I am having problems with my swallow... 
On Tuesday 17th March I went to Dumfries hospital to have an x-ray taken while trying to swallow in order to see what was going on... As can be seen in the video as I swallow the drink or food gets lodged near the opening of my wind pipe and small amounts 'leak' down the wrong way, there are exercises to help prevent this but at the moment I am unable to do them. Fortunately things do seem to be getting better everyday as my neck heals.
If you look closely at my jaw you can see the reconstruction that was needed to rebuild me after the infection in October.
During this week I also had a routine check up with my consultant and for the first time of seeing him there was nothing wrong, my next check up is now in two months (finally something good to report).
 

Tuesday 24 February 2015

Ready for Home.. Again!

That's a week since my operation now and today the 40 plus staples came out along with the tracheotomy tube, the drain came out yesterday... It's not been that bad here in Dumfries, room to myself and so many visitors I'm going to have to get home for some rest.... Still have the feeding tube in at the moment as swallowing isn't too hot but I'm not surprised about that... Looking forward to a walk on the beach with Troy!

Thursday 19 February 2015

Emergency Operation

So I got out of Southern General on Friday and had a great weekend at home, just like normal. Then Tuesday morning arrived, woke up at 3am for some pain relief no problem, straight back to sleep.... woke up at 6am and I couldn't move my neck, after a struggle to get up I looked in the mirror and my neck had swollen to the size of my head, not much I could do about it now so I decided to take some paracetamol and make an appointment at the doctors when they opened... Then all hell broke loose, the pressure must have found a weak stitch and blood started spurting all around the bedroom, this was rather un-nerving... An ambulance trip later I find myself being rushed through for emergency surgery to repair torn artery and wake up in ICU with a tracheostomy but a much smaller neck.... I am now in HDU and feeling fine with a move to a normal ward expected later today.... Dumfries RI is quite a nice hospital by the way.

Tuesday 10 February 2015

Well done Vodafone

I was having problems adding credit to my Vodafone dongle so I used Instant Chat... Here's the transcript of our chat

Well done Louise and thank you...

Swans at Gartnavel

Monday 9 February 2015

Southern General revisit

Well I've been back at Southern General Hospital for a week now, I had my neck dissection last Monday, the op lasted six hours but the surgeon managed to save almost all the important nerves and structure and was very optimistic... I've lost a lot of my swallow and my speech sounds like I have a pair of Rob's sock stuffed in my mouth at the moment but this should come back, I have no interest in rushing it. The main problem has been my neck drain, it should have come out after 3 days allowing me to get back home for the weekend but on Friday for some reason the amount of outflow doubled so I've been stuck here.... It's now going down at a good rate so I'm hoping that I'll get home tomorrow and start the real process of repairing myself......
Thursday 75ml - Friday 155ml - Saturday 120ml - Sunday 80ml and hopefully anything under 50ml for today, Monday

Tuesday 27 January 2015

Hospital Updates

Monday 26th Jan saw me back at Dumfries RI for an update about the biopsy and CT scan I had done last week....
The biopsy isn't back yet but based on the CT scan I have an enlarged node on the opposite side of my neck now, this means that another operation has now been scheduled for Monday 2nd Feb back at Glasgow Southern General for a neck dissection and the removal of all the nodes on this side. The operation will last around four and a half to five hours and I will then stay in hospital for the following five days (unless I can escape earlier). I have to go to Glasgow on Friday for a load of tests (to make sure I am healthy enough for the operation) and I'm hoping that the pathology will be back by then so that I have a better idea about things. 

Wednesday 21 January 2015

You've got to be kidding?

Phoned my nurse today at 11.30am to see what was happening about an appointment I have been waiting for at Dumfries RI..... after a few minutes on hold I was told that I was expected at 2pm today and should have confirmed as soon as I got my letter, 'what letter' I asked..... 'did you not get one, oh that's typical, just one of those things I suppose, lucky you phoned'..... Yes it was very lucky I phoned or I would have missed the appointment and it would have shown as a 'Did Not Attend' on my records with the chances of it being followed up being very slim indeed... The joke is wearing thin now.....
— with NHS Dumfries & Galloway.

Thursday 8 January 2015

Picc Line

During my recent treatment I had a PICC line inserted to pump in the drugs (it never worked properly) but upon removal it WAS snapped in half and so left about 6 inches of plastic tubing stuck between my arm and shoulder..... today I had several xrays in order to locate it with a view towards it's removal..... It's moved and they have lost it, cue panic and confusion amongst those 'in charge' and no doubt a few more visits to Dumfries RI next week, to say my confidence with those that 'know what they are doing' is wearing thin is somewhat of an understatement. On the upside I cue jumped so I was only there for about 40 minutes......

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