After being stressed to death for the last few days because I have felt that I have not progressed as well as I should have done, today was my last appointment with the surgeon before heading home and to say I was scared that she was going to take one look at me and say I was not well enough to fly would be an understatement. I am still losing quite a lot of blood every day, I am still living on painkillers every day, the swelling in the pelvic bone area is not getting any less and dilating is not getting any easier so I think it’s fair to say I was worried.
We were up early as we had to be at Ardmore for 9.30 and I’m not as quick at getting ready at the moment as I usually am but we were away on time and despite a little detour on our way to Ardmore we arrived on time in fact a little early. We pressed the button and were let in straight away and greeted by Dawn whose first words were, “how are you? We’ve missed you”, it was such a little thing but set me at ease. She showed us straight through and asked me to prepare for Kathy, set the chair up and then left us. In a couple of minutes Kathy and Dawn came back in and after exchanging pleasantries she had a look and announced that she was very happy with progress, not what I had expected at all, we had written down a list of questions which she answered fully and explained each one as we went on, we talked about the swelling and she suggested opening up one of the drains to see if anything came out, to be honest I was horrified at the thought of it but I asked if it would help, she said it could do so I agreed, it didn’t hurt much at all but not much came out so nothing much gained but at least she tried, she then took an instrument and inserted it! I thought that would hurt also but it was fine, she had a look inside and announced that everything looked perfect inside and that the healing process was going well. She then went on to explain how most people don’t realise that this surgery is unlike virtually any other in that it is both on the inside and the outside and thus will take twice as long to heal and take twice as much out of me. We discussed the dilating, she was very happy with where i am at with it and then talked about a product that she will mail to Australia as they don’t keep it in stock but it will just assist in joining up the split which has opened up on the left side lobe. It’s not a problem and will heal on its own but she felt it would speed up recovery.
To say I was relieved would be such an understatement! Honestly they are the most gorgeous team of people, so much like the team at Sunshine medical centre back at home, each one of them gave us both a big hug before we left, it’s a small thing but to me it is massive, this Is an extremely experienced and famous surgeon who has pioneered new techniques and has been doing this surgery for ten years who made the effort to give us both big hugs and say if there is ever a problem they are at the end of a phone or on Skype and not to hesitate to call and she is happy for us to speak directly to her if we would like, quite amazing and very humbling indeed.
So there we have it, we fly at 10.40 am tomorrow and I can’t wait to get set off. I’m sure I will recover much faster when we get home, it’s going to be a long journey but worth it in the end. So my next post will be when we are back in Australia, I’m so looking forward to catching up with all our friends and getting back into some sort of normal life albeit it will never quite be the same for me!