Note of absence

[Prymal]

heys - if anyones been looking for me - my absence is due to having major surgery .. I got very very ill over here in oz and ended up having serious bowel surgery thats gunna put me out of usefulness till at least xmas ..

Hope all you guys are doinig well otherwise , ill be checking this now and then

Stu

[Grrrrrrr!]

Bummer dude, get well soon.

[eskimo]

Bugger that sucks, all the best with the recovery thoe.

[saft]

Hah. Same deal here

Just had a spinal fusion done on Monday.

[Bling]

I hope you have health cover in Aussie!

[bzrspeed]

Australia has good public health system.

[RomanV]

....Unless youre a kiwi living there.

[solitaire]

Yikes get well soon bud

[Dell'Orto]

....Unless youre a kiwi living there.

From memory he's an Aussie anyway, so will be sorted.
Sounds painful, get better soon!

[RunningRich]

Fek. Best of luck. Major surgery ain't nice. Also the nurses are never as hot as on TV, mine have always been grumpy old women.

Did you end up taking your ST205 with you?

[Prymal]

i had all young 20 something nurses with a few old hens thrown in , cant complain , they were great ..

As for the group A , yeah , i got it over here , scraped in by the whiskers of its chin to pass the engineering but its as it left NZ , fully modified , and currently in dry dock. Plans are underway to replace the clutch and flywheel , and rebuild the engine when i start working again , with the body looked at after that . It had a hard time on the docks . pains $&#$% , and it copped a few new scrapes and scuffs , but i was expecting that ..

Worst thing is they stole my oz racing valve caps ! bastards !

[XS1V]

Hope you get better soon Stu, dont forget to get those antilag VSV's and piping off when you can

Brad

[Prymal]

Hope you get better soon Stu, dont forget to get those antilag VSV's and piping off when you can

Brad

havent forgotten mate , dont worry .. Ill be out of the game for a good year for the major stuff

if anyone cares , read on .. Full explaination as follows:

had some significant hiccups , and some very scary nights in hospital , but im home now with mum and dad ..

Between other hospital patients trying to escape , shouting all night , trying to self medicate , and doing a runner after having their gall bladder removed , plus the usual dimensia shouting , and oxygen bottles going POP everywhere during the night , i can honestly say the nurses did take good care of me .. Its been a huge emotional hit trying to deal with my new circumstances , and im drugged to the eyeballs for a few more weeks while it heals but yeah , main point is . Im alive

Now for the gruesome bits - dont scroll down if your squeamish:














First point of call was the anastesia ward , where they put the go sleepy stuff in .. After 6 tries to find a vein to put the goodness in , they finally got one to work - my poor hands looked chewed to bits but luckily the drugs helped numb things. My belly was shaved ( im hairy ) and then in i went .. Cant remeber much after that


After near 7 hours on the table I ended up with a 30 CM scar across my abdomen from 3 parts of bowel removed , ( join between small and large intestine gone - 2 small sections of large intestine ) i have a stoma bag ( colostiomy bag ) for now which will be removed later , and my butts been deactivated .. Still intact , just bypasssed till they join everything back up, which will be done in 6-8 months providing im healing well. I nearly ended up nopt having the bag , but they found a fistula , which is a bypass between small and large intestine , that had perforated ( yes , all this time , my bowel had been perforated and leaking a bit ) and joined, effectively shutting off a good chunk of healthy bowel . They needed to remove this - and put the bag on to0 let the surrounding area get healthy again.

I alsio ended up with an abdominal cavity drain - Horrid thing - about 30 CM of rubber tube poked around your guts to drain away bad fluids and crud , and two cathider (sp) taps that were like little fine tubes that delivered more painkillers intl my belly area to lessen the pain .. A urinal cathider topped off the fun :/ its quite strange not bneeding to worry about having to go pee or number 2's , it just happens and your unawarer of it

2 layers of internal stitching hold together what remain of my abdominal muscles ( i now have 2x3packs not a six pack ) and 56 stainless steel staples closed the superficial wound on the skin .. Theres pics of it on my facebook if your morbidly curious.

Inside ive got more stitches holding both intestine and muscle together , so my guts feel Horrid , very painful and sensitive to prod .. so no bellyrubs of firm for a while

It took 8 days for the guts to start working again , of which led to severe constipation .. It was like passing sharp gravel and hot coals thru your abdomen .. no stretching , and hard as rock .. ive never had so much pain physically in my life . I was very dehydrated , and so out to it , that passing out near happened a number of times and nausea wouldnt go away - any drink in , came up again ..

I also lost feeling in my left hand for three days , something pinched a nerve in my neck on the operating table ( maybe it was how they had me laying - i dunno ) . woke up - couldnt feel my hand ... was very distressing and odd but its finally coming right again 2 weeks later.

So that leads to now - the staples , drains and catheders have all been removed , i have a HUGE impressive scar , and a bag that annoys me , and im just starting to walk around again. gunna be a long climb to be right again , but im hoping it goes well

[Stu-]

Dude that sucks, all the best with recovery. Had an op myself and it sucks, mean scar on my back only slightly smaller than yours - obviously not as hardout thou.

I also lost feeling in my left hand for three days

No need to sit on your hand then...?

[Bling]

I can relate on about half of that stuff as had similar treatment (though not for bowl) in the last 5 years. Waking up after an OP with blurred vision for a day or two was the worst I had. Fearing i'd never see again, well I could see colours and objects but nothing else. Tubes hanging out of your body is also most unpleasant as you say. Having the likes of the a catheter tube poked up there certainly means any dignity you possibly had has well and truely gone. There is no way you can be any more embarrassed IMO than having that sort of carry on. Well that's what I found anyway.

I can't lay to my left side, and going from standing to laying gives me a coughing fit. I'd say for the rest of my life too. As they say, you don't appreciate what you have till it's gone.

Anyway, all that crap certainly gives you a different perspective on life, i';m sure you feel that way anyways. Rest up aye, the world will still be there when you're sorted.

[l SIC l]

Shit that's really terrible mate. Sorry to hear this has happened, but you've got to do what you've got to do eh.

Mind me asking how it lead up to the operation/need for it? or was it just a sudden pain that got diagnosed when you paid the doctor a visit?

Get healthy soon bud, look after yourself and you'll appreciate everything all that little bit more once you get back into things!

[dnalunchie]

Yeah I remember that feeling of waking up and not really knowing what was going on. When I was doing some volunteer work in the US i managed to get a really bad umbilical hernia which ruptured and began to fill my stomach cavity with bile (which is bad) so went through the fairly major surgery.

I remember waking up after surgery and they just said "are u in pain?" yes.... then a warm feeling through my arm and woke up a couple days later.

[Prymal]

I have chrons disease .. it went downhill rapidly in novenber just before i moved back to oz . I thought it was just stress and ulcers but it turned ut to be al leaking perforation that caused fistula into my large bowel .. basicall it had left me malnourished dehydrated , and with a fairly serious infection that was spreading thru the abdomen ..

Its all fixed now bar for the stoma reversal which happens later this year i hope , but its screwed me for a good 1 yeah to possibly 2 for 100% recovery ..

least i still have my Group A .. id be insane and severly depressed if i didnt have something to get stuck back into when things turn around .

[ollieboy]

Mate, I have crohns too. It's a shit of a thing but glad to hear you are recovering. It'll be great to get that stoma off.

What meds are you on, azathioprine and stuff?

[Prymal]

I was - but when the nasty stuff was cut out , they stopped the meds - basically to give the healthy part of the immune system a chance to fight back now that the diseased parts were gone ..

Depending on how bad your chrons is , im hoping its a life changer , hurts like all f**k for sure - but it so far has been worth it