Farmer H's Rumpus Grows A Tale

Farmer H went to the doctor on Wednesday. You may recall that he was having rumpus trouble in the area where that electronic shocker stimulator thingy was implanted to zap his bladder if it misbehaved too frequently. I'm pretty sure I mentioned how he asked me to look at the right rumpus area, because it was hurting. This was a couple weeks or more after the implantation. You'd think it would be getting better. However... when I took a look, the area was red, and when I reached to touch the edge, pus shot out!

I put antibiotic ointment on the area, and a bandaid. It seemed to be doing better. I'd change the bandaid every day or two. The left rumpus, where the external wires had been implanted to test if the experiment was going to work, was healing and scabbing over nicely since the wires had come out. Then a few days ago, Farmer H said his right rumpus was really hurting again.

THE WHOLE AREA WAS RED! Not "hot" red. But red. A rectangle around where that device is under the skin. I told Farmer H that didn't look normal! So he called the surgeon/doctor, who told him to come in. Here's the scoop:

The surgeon said that Farmer H did NOT have an infection. He said it looked like his skin was having a reaction to the bandaid. Oh, and by the way, he poked around in the incision area, and found a STITCH! Not a whole stitch. He said it was a half stitch. One that he'd used to close the outside of the incision, and should have dissolved. Then he sent in a prescription to Farmer H's pharmacy for an ANTIBIOTIC pill! So unusual, with no infection...

I say that this is a case of CYA. Cover Your Rumpus. Don't admit that you left a stitch in there that caused an infection! Oh, and the antibiotic, which Farmer H can't remember the name, but says it's a huge horse pill... can cause a problem with potassium. So now Farmer H has to go Friday for a blood test to check his potassium, in addition to stopping his regular daily potassium pill. You don't want to mess around with potassium levels, people! It can affect your heartbeat. 

Anyhoo... I guess the scenario as presented by the surgeon/doctor is plausible. Thursday night, Farmer H's right rumpus looked better. It was scabbing over, and the red skin area was less red, and parts looked like it was peeling like snake skin.

Farmer H thinks that little 1/4 inch of stitch was poking out just enough that it got irritated every time he pulled his tighty-whities up and down. I think sitting in the buttwater soup of the big triangle tub in the master bathroom for his aching back/legs did not help the "stitchuation."

The antibiotic is for seven days. I hope Farmer H's lab is open Friday, so he can see if his potassium level is affected. Otherwise, it will be Monday before he can get the blood test. The sixth day of the seven days of antibiotic.

Oh, and the bandaid situation? I asked why it hadn't done that all the other times I put a bandaid on it for him. But this was one of the new bandaids Farmer H had picked up for ME. It has sticky on all four sides, while the others we'd been using had the typical two-side sticky. 

 

Funny how my leg was itchin' like the dickens Wednesday night. I could hardly stand it. When the bandaid loosened itself and came off Thursday, I left it off. No more itching...