Well folks, I'm still alive
. I got home today after a week of hell and I'm in pretty good spirits considering I'm wearing a catheter and piss bag as well as my right lower leg being in plaster.
Without going into a step by step run through the last week went kinda like this..........
I underwent ankle fusion surgery on January 19 at Concord Hospital. The 3 hour operation went down without problems and I'm delighted to say that the ankle is almost completely pain free after over a decade of chronic pain. To say that I'm stoked would be a gross understatement. While recuperating in Concord Hosp I noticed that I was having a little trouble pissing but it didn't bother me to any degree after the nurses and doctor explained that the urinary system often goes into 'shock' after major surgery involving large amounts of anesthetics. I was assured that it would be OK after a day or two.
I was released from Concord hospital on 21/1 and despite bumping into walls and furniture walls in my wheelchair all was going well until around 10 PM that night when it became glaringly obvious that I couldn't pass any urine and the pain was building at an alarming rate. By midnight I was in the worst pain I'd ever experienced so I called an ambo and was rushed to Mt Druitt Hospital where they hit me with 10mg of morphine and fitted a catheter. Within a couple of minutes I'd expended
2 litres of pink urine which brought an amazing relief. Nurses noted that there were two decent sized kidney stones in the urine/blood mix so it was assumed that the stones were the problem so they removed the catheter and I went home at 10am.
All seemed to be fine, I was pissing fairly normally and I enjoyed visits from friends and family. At 8pm I had a piss and passed yet another stone. I was pretty buggered by then so I hit the sack and slept soundly until midnight or so when awakened by a similar pain to the previous nights and an inability to piss told me that I's better get back to the hospital pronto. I once again called an ambo and was rushed to Mt Druitt Emergency where they immediately put another catheter on my willy and I quickly passed another 1.5 litres of bloody urine. At this stage an amazing young Hungarian doctor who looked like he should have replaced Sid in the Sex Pistols (
spike hair,12 earings, nose lip and brow piercings and impressive tatoo collection) decided to check my prostate and put me through the MRI machine to check just what was going on. The results showed that my left ureter (
the tube from the kidney to the bladder )was completely blocked by 10 stones, the biggest being 6mm :'(. The other side had six smaller stones but a trickle of piss was getting through.
My Hungarian punk doctor didn't muck about, he booked me an ambo straight to Westmead Hospital where, after two cancellations I went into surgery and was fitted with a temporary plastic stent, bypassing the blocked ureter. I was fitted with yet another, different type of catheter with a "fuel tap" on the end which will be in place for the next month until I go back in to have the plastic bypass stent removed. Two weeks after that I go back in again to have the remaining kidney stones lazered. There could be anything up to 30 or 40 stones in my kidneys so the plastic stent apparently gives them an easier route out. I just had a piss, which entails opening up my tap and pissing into a bowl and there were four little stones and a lot of sandy or muddy style stuff so something's happening
.
All up I've had 9 days in hospital and a shitload of pain but it's been worth it. My ankle is now on the way to being fixed and best of all, we found a potentially serious problem that I wasn't previously aware of. I'd always thought my diminished piss power was down to my old fella prostate but it turns out my prostate's fine and it was something out of left field. As I said I've got two more operations coming up over the next month or so but it'll be well worth the inconvenience of having to wear a piss bag for a little while to get well again. This was one of the wake up calls I well needed.
Thanks to everyone who sent me PM's, emails and phonecalls....your concern has reminded me of just what good people frequent this sport. My mates have been amazing, taking care of business, transporting my mum, non driving girlfriend and others to the hospital to see me. I'm still not very well or too mobile but I can feel a steady improvement so I hope me, my crutches and trusty piss bag can get back into the shed in a week or so....there's a couple of bikes needing finishing touches for the upcoming Nats!
