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.

15 April - The wound infection and thoughts on the NHS

Wednesday 15 April I return to the hospital to see Mr P’s registrar. The wound is bigger and deeper. She has the results from the swabs taken last week. Pseudomonas and anaerobic bacteria have colonised the wound in quite large numbers. This needs a heavy hit and flucloxicillin doesn’t have any effect on these little b****rs. The registrar prescribes Metronidozol and Ciprofloxacin for fourteen days. The pharmacist at the hospital tells me I can’t drink while I am taking this and also have to watch when I eat any dairy products. Great. Hopefully I will have finished the course by the time we go to Spain.


The wound infection is getting me down. I have resisted using private medical health insurance for this up to now in the firm belief that the NHS cannot be beaten in treating cancer in this country. They fast track cancer patients and try their very best to treat you well. But I decide I cannot face another stay in the NHS hospital and the possibility of more infections – let alone the ward set up and lack of sleep. So I decide to use my company health insurance scheme. I do more research. I find out that Mr P and his team also work out of a local private hospital. I call the insurance company and yes I can have the full course of any treatment required. Mr P and the private hospital are acceptable. The insurance company e-mails all the forms and assigns me a one contact case manager so I don’t have to go round the houses each time I call. Very impressive. I call Mr P’s secretary. I will keep my next meeting with Mr P, who wants to see me on 23 April, at the NHS hospital and from there I will move with him to the private sector. Job done.