Back to the white room

On the 9th of Feb, the throbbing headache was excruciating. It woke me up from my sleep and I could tell that the sky was still dark outside. I glanced at my bedside clock and it was almost 7:00 in the morning. I couldn’t think of anything, didn’t know what to do. The pain simply numbed my brain’s ability to function. I’ve had headache spells and migraines before but nothing compared to this. I tried sitting up and took deep breaths … didn’t work. So there I was, tossing and turning until I could take it anymore. I went downstairs and took a 500mg paracetamol tablet and praying that the effect would kick in as soon as possible. Switched on the tele hoping that it would distract me from the pain slightly (they were showing Jackie Chan’s Rob B Hood). A couple of minutes later, I made my way upstairs and plopped myself onto my bed. Pain was still there. This continued for another 4 hours or so before I managed to drift to sleep and woke up during lunch hour.

Upon waking up, I felt much better. The headache was replaced with a li’ll bit of dizziness which I could bear. Had lunch and made my way with SY to her friend’s place. That was when the fever and headache returned. We cut short our trip and I went home to rest. Constant head massages and popping of paracetamols helped me last through the night. An appointment with my surgeon was made for the next day.

The next morning, we made our way to the hospital. Didn’t have much strength left in me due to the lack of sleep the night before. While waiting for the elevator, I practically dragged myself to sit on an empty row of chairs because I was feeling dizzy. Didn’t watched my head and slammed it on the wall behind. Fortunately I did not hit where the surgery wound was.

The doctor decided to ward me in to do some tests. Blood and urine samples were taken and it’s confirmed that I had a urinary track infection. Apparently it’s common especially amongst guys to have this because I had a catiter fitted after my surgery. Treatment is fairly standard … just a matter of feeding me with antibiotics twice a day through the drip. That’s not the worse part, it’s the severe headache and fever that’s causing all the discomfort.

The next day, doc said my stiches could be taken out. Took him no longer than 3 minutes to expertly get all of it out. The rest of the day went on as usual, slept a lot, ate quite a fair bit, put up with the headache and fever, etc. Went to sleep at about 11pm and woke up at approximately 2am to find the back of my body wet. Figured it was probably sweat and dozed off again. An hour later, I woke up again feeling really ‘sweaty’ and thought to myself this can’t be right. Switched on the lights and to my horror, with the stitches taken out, the surgery wound opened up slightly and the brain fluid were actually oozing out of my body. I immediately called for the nurse and they came and bandaged me. Changed the bed sheets, pillowcase, etc. They were gone for two minutes before more fluid flowed out. A new bandage was needed and this time, the oozing stopped. Later in the afternoon, oozing continued and the doc located a pin sized hole on the surgery wound. I was given local GA and he added 4 more stitches where the hole is. I’m really hoping this will stop the oozing indefinitely or else I’ll have to go through another surgery to reopen the surgery wound and re-stitch the entire thing. Another possible scenario is that if there's a brain fluid retention in the brain, they might have to insert a tube from the brain all the way to the abdomen to divert the excess brain fluid and at the same time decreasing the pressure in my head. :(

Anyway, over the next two days, I was down with fever. It only comes like clockwork after dinner and it usually brings along severe headache as well as pain on my right arm.

Luckily, the day after, the fever subsided and I was allowed by my doc to be discharged. Am currently resting at home. I hope this is all there is and that my recovery would continue smoothly.

P.S.

1.) I actually spent more days in the hospital this time compared to the time I had the surgery done.

2.) I spent Valentine's Day 2008 in my ward. :(