22 & 23 April - Allergies!

Wednesday 22 April. I am back at work and I have been taking the heavy-duty antibiotics for a week. I can’t say I have seen much progress on the wound. It isn’t getting any worse but I am starting to feel odd and have come out in a very bad itchy rash. The blurb with the medications indicates this is a severe side effect so I have to stop taking them.

Thursday 23 April. I see Mr P on the NHS for the last time. Hallelujah - I don’t have to go the outpatient route but see him in the elective surgery centre. Much more civilised. We sort out the paper work for the health insurance and the new arrangements. We have to change the date of my operation to 27 May but that is OK.


Strangely or perhaps not so strangely he spends more time with me. Probably because we have the problem of the wound and the allergy. He agrees I cannot take the medication any more and calls the microbiology lab to find out what else we can do. Unfortunately pseudomonas and anaerobes are a bit tricky and there are not a lot of options other than an antibiotic that has to be injected and requires a hospital stay. We both agree that we don’t want to go there. The microbiologist suggests silver dressings. I perk up. In my researches I have come across these and they have good results. I nod and indicate I think this is a good idea. Mr P puts the phone down and asks me if I would like to sit in his seat. He tracks down some available dressings at my GPs surgery and I pick them up that afternoon. These prove to be the answer. It takes nearly a month for the wound to finally heal over but every day it gets smaller and shallower. I end up with a red patch – not pretty but it will fade along with the incision scars.



With the wound getting better and my switch to private health we go on holiday feeling a lot better.

The holiday was great 10 days of nearly perfect weather and some nice if not spectacularly well-played golf. It did us a world of good.