Playing the waiting game for an operation.

Progress

On Sunday morning I woke up to find that the cuts on my leg had bled during the night and come through the dressing.  It looked a lot worse than it actually was, but they still had to change the dressings and to do so they also needed to take off the cast that I’d been wearing since I got to the hospital on Thursday, an uncomfortable process.

As they were redressing the damaged skin I asked them if I’d be getting some sort of pain killer before they put a new cast back on, because I remembered that as being quite a painful process.  ‘Oh yes’, they said.

Soon after, the medical evacuation doctor came and introduced himself, and we discussed how we were going to get to KL, whether or not I could bend my right knee, an inability to do so making the flight difficult, but not impossible, he assured me.  I was sure I could bend it if my cast didn’t extend to just above my knee, so when they were fitting me with more plaster the guys made the necessary adjustments.  Of course…they did forget to give me any pain killers in the end, so having them pull my foot out to straighten up my leg was tremendous fun.  In the ambulance on the way to the airport, my evacuation doc told me how annoyed he was that they hadn’t given me anything, and that he wasn’t able to say anything at the time because people get huffy if you start telling them what to do in their own hospital.  He was a good guy.

Flew business class to KL, and on the flight the doc told me that my break would be pretty straight forward to fix up, because I had broken nice straight bones (fibula and tibula) and not any of the tricky intricate bones of the ankle.  I counted my blessings once again that my sandals had broken and I’d been wearing my shoes when the bike landed on my foot (oh, and remember how I’d asked them not to cut my good sock when they were examining me on the first day?  Well when I was trying to get everyone to help me pack to leave the hospital we could only find one of them.  And that one had a big hole in it that I hadn’t noticed from the crash).  He reckoned that they’d either operate that evening or the following day.

When we finally made it to the hospital, however the doctor had another look at my leg (cast off again, but they gave me some painkillers this time before putting another one on) and said that because there were abrasions over the fracture that could potentially have goodness knows what bacteria in them, he felt that they would not be able to operate for two to three weeks, to avoid the risk of getting bacteria into the leg during an operation.  I was then shown up to my ward, a private room with internet and a TV.  A far cry from the place I’d been on the island, which, although I said it was clean, had a fair share of geckos running along the walls.

The following day, the doctor looked at my leg and said they could operate in five days or so, which was a good improvement on two weeks.  Next day, yesterday, I was told two or three days!  And so today I’ve been told I’ll be operated on at nine tomorrow morning, which is exciting news.

It’ll be at least two weeks before I’ll be able to take a long distance flight back to Ireland, if indeed that’s what I decide to do, although I can’t imagine too many other options at the moment, as I will be pretty restricted in my movements henceforth.  I don’t fancy lugging around a backpack the size of mine with only one leg and some crutches.  It would be asking for trouble, I think.

Have had several visitors through CouchSurfing, who have helped to keep me entertained for the last few days.  Also my sister will be arriving on either Friday or Saturday to visit me out here, instead of meeting in Thailand as we’d originally planned.  Possibly a poor second choice to getting some more scuba diving in, but the best laid plans…(I’m not sure how that saying ends, it’s usually left hanging , isn’t it, but I’m sure there’s more to it).

In other news, I’ve discovered that the cardboard jugs that they give you to pee into are not designed to hold urine for an extended period of time.

Time to sleep, big day tomorrow, wish me luck.