Well, it's truly been a while and this time lots has happened. Over two weeks ago the strange lump on the back of my knee started to ooze. The idiot infectious disease specialist I saw a week prior to this said I would be fine till my scheduled surgery on the 28th. No, I saw my surgeon who told me to go to the emergency room in the main public hospital and that he would call and arrange my admission. Public hospital because they were better equipped and had more services available for home help. D and I frantically prepared for the unknown and then I waited 9 hours for a bed. The next few days passed without my awareness. I was in ICU due to low blood pressure (a common problem of mine) and was only really conscious 4 days later when I was moved to an orthopaedic ward.

Here I've been for almost 2 weeks. The knee replacement has been removed and a “spacer” put in that is not a knee and feels very weird. I can't put weight on it. I have a staph infection which being treated with huge doses of IV penicillin. I am having horrendous problems with my gut and nurses unfamiliar with IBS don't help. This is a world that revolves around “opening your bowels” and I can't on cue. I have a whiz bang vacuum wound dressing on the back of my knee. My spacer was replaced last week since it was doing something wrong. Man, that hurt. I now can have the wound dressed on the ward rather than going into OR.

I am both terrified and bored. Stressed and dying to go home. D is taking good care of the Imp but I miss her. Everything hinges on the staph infection being knocked out so a skin graft can go on the back of the knee. I will try to post now that I have wi-fi connection. I expect to be here another 2 weeks. Since I can't put weight on the leg, going home isn't a simple matter.