I have a super gross situation happening...need advise ASAP!

Thanks for asking girls! I am MUCH better now. I had to have a second surgery to repair the damage done, now I have a totally flat stomach that I should have had after the first surgery! I had loads of scar tissue in there and a huge pocket of infection. It has been a real trial to get through this, but in the end everything turned out good. The other doctor that I had first is a quake and should be run out of town!

0351_wife
I just read through this whole thread, holding my breath at times! Unbelievable what you've been through , so glad your infection was cured and that your new doctor was such a blessing for you!

When you get a moment, can you please tell us how the story ends? I would love to hear it has a happy ending!
Blessings

Very Happy to hear you are hopefully through the worst of it & will all be downhill from here! Good Lord what a journey for you & praying for you that it is all worth it in the end!! And thank God for that ps that has helped you...I believe there's a saying- 'What doesn't kill you makes you stronger' You should be Hercules for sure! :) Hope you continue to do well!!

So glad to hear you no longer have the staph infection. I often thought about you and your situation and hoped things were getting better. I'm sorry that you had to go through this whole ordeal. Recovery is hard enough. I pray that all goes well the second time around. Wish you the best!

well, I don't have the infection any longer, thank God! But I do have to have surgery again in April some time to correct all the horrible scar tissue left from it. The top part of my stomach is pretty flat, but the lower part where my scar is looks horrible. It looks like I never had a tummy tuck! I will have to go through all this again to be flat and look like I envisioned looking at the beginning of this madness! I just hope this time it works and I don't get another infection!!!

0351 wife. Your story is crazy to me. I'm so sorry that happened to you please update us on how your doing.

How are you doing?

How are you doing??? You are in my prayers daily and I hope you are getting better. I would definately consider some type of legal action against your original doctor, the fact that he left guaze inside of you body is crazy!

I hope after your health problems are cleared up you consult an Attorney to seek legal advice about the gauze that was left inside of you. I wonder if that had anything to do with the start of your problems. At the very least it shouldn't have been left in there. If so make sure you have have the gauze and Dr's photos to show.

0351~ Since you are already having all these issues healing please make sure you are eating a lot of protein. You need it so badly for healing and for you you'd probably do good upping it significantly. Protein shakes are good. Also, get a really good probiotic as all the antibiotics are going to screw up your intestines and that is where 80% of you immune system is anyway. You need a good one that has at least 10 different strains of bacteria (more strains are better since we have so many different kinds of bacteria in our intestines). And you need one that has billions. I took one that had 50 billion in it. A great brand to look into is Renew Life. For more info there is a lady named Brenda Watson who is a specialist in this area. Check out her website which is just her name .com. You need all the immunity strengthening you can get. Vit C is important for healing too. Read my blog and you'll see what I dealt w/ in my healing. I was lacking protein and I really suffered for it. Your body is already strained so much that you've got to dive into nutrition and how you can feed your body optimally right now.

Just trying to help. I hate that you've got so much to deal w/ already. VERY glad you found this doctor. He sounds wonderful and will take good care of you.

Can't blame you for breaking down!!! Glad he hugged you and that you have a plan. The right doctor makes all the difference. He's a keeper!

I can't believe I forgot to tell the name of my new surgeon!! I found him through a google search for cosmetic surgeons in Richmond, VA. A suggestion for Richmond Plastic Surgery came up and I visited the webpage. There are several surgeons in the office and they have several locations. I called their office on Bremo Road and told the receptionist what my issues were. She said, "that all sound so horrible! You need to see Dr. Williams. Let me speak to him (this was on a Friday afternoon at about 2:30) and check to see what he thinks we need to do and I will call you right back." Not even 20 minutes later the receptionist called me back and said she had spoken to Dr. Williams and he would gladly have seen me that day, but since I am about 65 miles away from them he could see me first thing Monday morning. So, the following Monday was my first meeting with Dr. Mason Williams. He has been a God send!!! I would highly recommend the practice and him to anyone. They even have a certified operating room attached to the office. All the procedures are done "in house" so to speak to cut down on costs. With my first surgeon, I had to write 3 checks. One for him, one for the anesthesia people, and one for the surgery center fee. This time that won't be the case!! Dr. Williams is really professional, very knowledgeable, just wonderful!!

0351_wife I'm so glad you are now in the hands of a doctor committed to helping you. It doesn't sound pleasant, but as you said, there is now a plan. When this is all over, I hope you will start a new review and share the name of your new, lifesaving doctor. Good luck and please stay in touch so we know how you are doing.

Hello ladies! Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, but there was nothing really new to report and with Christmas and all, you know how it is. However....

Today I saw my new PS and had a little "mental breakdown" of sorts in his office! He is SOOO caring and wonderful and when he asked me how I was doing today I just lost it! I said to him, "Oh, the usual...just rotting away one second at a time! I have oozing stuff and smelly stuff and I'm always in pain...nothing new! Will I EVER feel better again?!" All of this was said in a haze of tears and emotion. I was sitting on the exam table in a gown, and when I stopped speaking he just stood up from his little roller seat and put his arms around me and hugged me. He patted my back and said he completely understood what I meant. I have just reached my breaking point with all of this!! He told me that with all the antibiotics I am taking which make me vomit, and all the pain I'm in constantly there isn't a person in their right mind that wouldn't feel this way at some point. It's like being in constant mental and physical torment. He comforted me and told me that I need to do whatever it takes to keep the antibiotics down, at least for the next 2 weeks. He wants me to have a CT scan to see how many more, if any abscess areas I have in my abdomen. If there is only a small one, he is going to open me up and clean the area. He will then LEAVE IT OPEN AND PACK IT. I will be in a great deal of pain, and will have to unpack it and repack it daily. GREAT!!! When that is healed and cleaned nicely, later I will have to have it all corrected so I look decent again. SUPER!!! At this point, I am sobbing and I asked him if I should just sign over my first born to him now! I can't imagine how much this is all going to cost me!! I mentioned that and he said that wasn't an issue. That he understood how much I had paid the other surgeon ($13,240.00!!!!!) and that right now money wasn't an issue to him at all. He is more concerned with me being healthy and feeling good. I have been to his office 4 times now and he hasn't once asked me for any payment. Hopefully, I'm not racking up the office visits here and going to get some huge bill. But, I really don't get the feeling he would do that. He seems to be genuinely caring and concerned. He also asked for my insurance information my first visit, so he may be some how making them pay for all this... considering at this point what I'm having done isn't "cosmetic", it's life or death!

So, for today I got to air out some of my emotions and have a plan. It's not a plan that sounds like a very pleasant one, but none the less a plan!! He told me that the reason I still feel so horrible is because my body is taking every ounce of energy it has to fight this infection and heal me. That there are several stages of healing, and I'm stuck in one stage for over 2 months now. At the beginning your body reacts to the trauma of surgery with inflammation, and all your muscle fibers are just crazy like a pile of "pick-up-sticks". Once the inflammation goes down 5-7 days post op, your muscle fibers lay more straight and get where they should be. I'm still at the inflammation stage due to all the infection, so my muscles aren't healing either. Hence, all my pain. Oh well. At this point, I'm just so thankful to have a surgeon who doesn't have his head up his you know what and actually knows what he is talking about. I'm so thankful to have a caring, sympathetic doctor with a conscience and a HEART! It's very rare to find a doctor that remembers he is a human too!!!!!

Thank you all for all your support....you can't know how helpful it is to have a place to talk with others who know my pain!!

Oh so very sorry to hear all that you have gone through. It had to be so scary to know about all the infections going on in your body. So glad you dumped the first guy and found a decent surgeon. I'm not a sue happy kind of girl but he deserves to be sued for his total incompetence and lack of care.

I've dealt with a large wound opening for 12 weeks but I had no infection. Now I see just how lucky I was to not have that complication too.

Hang in there. We are here to support you! Thanking God that you have a wonderful caring husband by your side too. You ARE going to make it through all of this. It is just going to take longer.

Yes, please keep us updated!

Just read your posts &can't believe what you have gone through. Your story makes me so grateful for my dr who immediately.rushed me back to.OR at first sign of infection 2 weeks post-op, checking in frequently for several days to be sure we had halted the infection. Please let us know how you are doing & feel better soon.

Haven't heard from you in a few days I hope you are being well taken care of and everything is ok.

Looks like you found light! Thank God you found a good Doctor to help resolve all your issues!! I am absolutely appalled by what the other doctor did to you. I will pray for you that your body heals and your feeling better asap.

Thank you for the update I had you on my mind all day today. I am so happy that you are in good hands. I really hope this doc is keeping good notes so you can sue the crap out of the other doc. Messy work. And yes please please look at this as the road to recovery. Now you know that you can make it through anything. You are in our thoughts and prayer.

So glad you are in good hands now. Don't focus on ANYTHING other than resting so that your body can fight off these bugs. You want to knock them out as soon as possible so you can get on with your life. So sorry this happened to you. Your first doctor sounds truly awful and incompetent.

I'm sitting here speechless. U are continuously in my thoughts and prayers. Maybe the I.D. and the surgeon can work together and take care of U RIGHT! Please keep ur head up and know that there are people out here wishing the best for U!!!

Well ladies, today was a busy day! I went to my new surgeon and had a check up of how things are going. My belly button is now almost completely sealed shut and smells horrible. My surgeon says that my umbilical stump has died and he will have to make me a new belly button. Also, while cleaning out the pocket I have (I am now referring to myself as a marsupial because I have a tummy pocket.), he pulled out a glob of nastiness about the size of a 50 cent piece. His exact words upon pulling it out were, "WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" He turned to his nurse and showed it to her. It was dangling from the end of a sterile q-tip and he set it down on the counter near by. He looked at it for several minutes and decided it was a piece of gauze left in there after my surgery!!! He kept it, put it into some fluid in a specimen jar and the nurse took pictures of it. He says that it defiantly wasn't supposed to be in there! So, we talked a bit more about what the plan is, how he hopes I won't have to have more than one surgery...but that there is a possibility. He may have to go in and clean the pocket and all, then later go back and do all the cosmetic type work to repair my stretched out skin and the belly button. Also, he wants me to pack my pocket twice a day with an antibiotic coated gauze. Sounds oh so fun....NOT!

Next, I went to see the infectious disease doctor. I had to give him my whole family history and mine. After all that, I described to him from beginning to present of what has been going on. He was shocked to say the least! He read me my culture reports from the cultures my new surgeon did. I have Staph, MRSA, and on top of those I also have something called "Bacteroidies Flagela"!! I have no clue what the heck that is but I have to be on two different antibiotics for all this stuff! The antibiotic for the staph and MRSA won't clear up the Bacteroidies Flagela junk. Also, he tells me the antibiotic for the Bacteroidies stuff is the ONLY available oral form of this drug and it causes extreme nausea. AWESOME!!! If I can't tolerate it guess what happens next?? I have to be admitted to the hospital and on IV antibiotics till it clears up! GREAT. My I.D. doctor says that I need to have surgery to clean everything out first because he could give me every drug known to man to clear this stuff up, but if there are pockets of pus and infection in my abdomen it's not going to do any good. My surgeon says I need to have the infections cleared up before he cuts me open because he doesn't want to open me up to even more infection and spread what is already there. Both those things make sense to me...but they are going to have to have a meeting of the minds to figure out who goes first!!

At any rate, I think today was productive. At least I am seeing the right doctors and getting some wheels turning! I will keep you guys posted on how this antibiotic makes me feel and what happens next. Thanks for all the support and reading my story!