Part 13: Post-Op Scare

March 14, 2020

Post-Op recovery went a lot smoother than last time. I was up and moving faster and back to work within 3 weeks despite the size of the surgery. However, 5 weeks post-op, I took a turn for the worse.

The morning of March 14th, I began having some soreness around my surgery site (inside and out), but didn’t think much of it at the time. By mid afternoon, I was lethargic, didn’t have an appetite, was running a low-grade fever, and the pain had gotten worse. I knew something was wrong, but was desperately hoping it would just go away with some Advil. At 8:30pm, my fever spiked, I had vomited, and couldn’t walk without being in considerable pain. The on-call nurse at UGO was fearful that I had developed an abscess that was in the beginning stages of turning septic and recommended we go straight to the ER. We pulled in 15 minutes later and, thanks to COVID-19, my temperature was immediately taken - within minutes, I had gone up almost a full degree.

My heart rate, blood pressure, and white blood cell count were all high and my oxygen levels low. The doctor ordered a CT, but due to my allergy to the dye, she couldn’t see too much from it. By the time I returned to my room, I couldn’t even walk across the hall to the bathroom. Like the UGO nurse suspected, the doctors believed I was dealing with a pelvic abscess that, if left untreated, would become septic. After some pain killers and a high dose of antibiotics, the scariest night of my life was starting to look up and we were finally sent home at 2:30am.

I had a follow-up visit at UGO two days later and was put on a week of intense antibiotics and a Z-Pak. Thankfully, the abscess cleared by the end of the medication - I really didn’t want to go through the draining process.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the journey to my diagnosis in October and this scare, it’s to speak up and advocate for yourself. You know better than anyone if something doesn’t feel right, if something is off with your body. Insist on appointments to speak to the doctor, insist on them running the test that they think may or may not give answers. I could have lost my life twice in the span of 10 months had I not listened to my body and advocated for myself that something wasn’t right. If you take anything away from my story, please let it be this: Speak. Up.