Click the picture for the story of Calypso, the Three Legged Green Sea Turtle, and why she's my symbol

Monday, April 2, 2012

I'm slowly turning into a horse

For those who have been following my most recent surgery, I am still in the hospital but there is a chance that I could be released tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Even though I'll be leaving the hospital I'm taking parts of it with me. The most visible portion is my new tail. And yes you heard me right. I have a tail! It's actually made of the three bulb drains I mentioned in my last post, located right at the base of back. They have the problem of getting tangled up in each other giving them the appearance of a braided horse tail. I'm expecting to start growing hoofs any day now. I can get them all removed when they stop draining, whenever that'll be.

My tail coming out of the back of my hospital gown.

Another thing I'm bring with me is my PICC line. A PICC, or Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter, is a long slender flexible tube that is inserted through a vein in the arm. This is guided to directly outside the heart. This allows the PICC line to be hooked up to an IV, delivering the product to the biggest pump in the body. In my case I'm using it to deliver antibiotics, which need the extra pumping power of the heart to make sure it reaches hard to reach blood vessels all over the body. In addition it allows me to have a permanent IV for the 6 weeks I'll have to be taking IV antibiotics. If I had to get restuck for an IV every few hours I would start to look like Swiss cheese. 

The PICC line coming out of my arm.

Finally, I have the staples in my back. I'm no stranger to staples so these do not bother me too much. They're mildly annoying and will need to get pulled out in about a week. They're the least invasive pieces of machinery I have in my body at the moment.

All in all my back isn't looking too bad.

I have to remind myself that this is all to prevent any further infections down the line. And the last thing I want is to land myself back here because I didn't take take care of my new machinery. Now all I need to do is stop tripping over this tail; at least I should be able to use it to swat the springtime bugs away...

Click the horse to see him in action. It will amaze some of you...
 

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