Not quite back in the saddle

I think I spoke too soon about my recovery. I knew I must have hexed myself posting about how good I felt.

It started with a burning sensation when I peed and my lower abdomen felt uncomfortable - it ached and kinked up everytime I stood from a sitting position. Add to that a constant lowgrade fever that came every evening, left me in chills by 8pm and asleep by 9pm. A dipstick test showed high alkalinity and significant haemoglobin levels in the pee.

From the sound of it, it was a UTI. Thanks to the catheterisation of course.

Made my way to the polyclinic today with my fretting mother in tow who angsted over "why your belly so distended? Is it bigger than before? Maybe you are having a slow bleed inside!" to "that stupid doctor of yours, why didn't they discharge you properly, tell you what to look out for!" etc etc. Love my mom, she's absolutely on my side. A bit paranoid thanks to 40 years of nursing, but useful to have in a corner when dealing with the medical establishment.

The goondu doctor at the polyclinic at first brushed me off - "You're just 9 days post-op. Its not unusual to feel this sort of pain. Its major surgery you went through. Go home and if you feel worse, go to the A&E."

Huh??? Go home? I know what I'm feeling and you know how I feel about unnecessary interventions and tests and drugs etc. But my gut tells me something's not right. Otherwise why bother to make the trip to the polyclinic right? Duh!

I noticed my mother quietly walk across the room to stand beside me. Before she could go ballistic on the goondu doctor, I insisted that something was not right and he reluctantly sent me for a urine test and a full blood count. Turns out that there was a whole column of red on the screen when the results came back - white blood cell count elevated in the abnormal column, red blood cell count down, haemoglobin, haematocrits all down. Clearly signs of an infection.

But believe it or not, the goondu refused to prescribe anything and told me he would refer me back to the hospital. Argh!!

Back to the hospital I went. After looking at the test results, the doctor there said it was a clear-cut case of UTI and treatable. Mom was wondering why they ushered us in so quickly after triage. And one look at the referral letter by the goondu doctor and it became obvious - the guy had written - "suspected septicaemia"!! Huh??

To cut long story short - I am now on stronger antibiotics (there goes my gut!) . Keeping fingers crossed that the infection will blow over.