Ugghh!

Warning - this is a non-spanking and kind of gross post, so if you want to skip, feel free.

Well this sucks. Okay, about 8 years ago I had a small sebaceous cyst develop on my right upper back/shoulder area. I went to my doctor, and he told me that it was nothing to worry about. It was painless, and not very large, just a bump under my skin, so I let it go. But after about 2 years, it became infected and abcessed. It was incredibly painful, and surgery to excise it was recommended. I didn't want to do the surgery for a couple of reasons, not the least of which was anxiety about the anesthesia. The doctor gave me a shot of antibiotics, and within a few days the cyst came to a head and ruptured. This was AWFUL. The stuff inside had to be squeezed out of the very sore surrounding tissue, and it was literally worse than childbirth. Well, once that was done, I decided to definitely not have the surgery, because the infection was gone, and with a 4 and 1/2 month old baby, I didn't need to deal with not being able to lift for a couple of weeks, which would've been the case after surgery.

Everything was fine for another two years. Then the cyst started coming back. It wasn't infected, but it was growing. Morgan was a toddler by then, and with the memory of all the pain before in mind, I told Nick I was going to get it removed before it became infected again. Literally two days after that conversation, before I could get in to see the doctor, infection set in again. I scheduled the surgery for as soon as possible, but that turned out to be a couple of weeks away, and it ruptured again before then. I went through the whole painful draining process again. I went ahead with the surgery so that it wouldn't happen again.

Unfortunately, the surgeon I ended up with was less than competent. I didn't realize to what extent until just recently. After the surgery I had a rather large scar, but the surgeon told me that this was because he'd had to do a lot of digging to get it all and berated me for not coming in before it ruptured this time (like I wanted to wait three weeks for the surgery). He was rude and belligerent the whole time I dealt with him, but I just wrote it off as him having a bad bedside manner. When I went back in to have the stitches removed, rather than cleaning them to loosen any scabbing around them, he basically ripped them out and left me bleeding again. I probably should have talked to someone at the hospital about his manner and treatment, but I was too intimidated, and I just wanted the whole thing done with.

As my scar healed I realized just what a lazy job he had done of sewing me back up. The scar is about three inches long, and he only put in about 6 stitches. I have scars from each of the stiches running across the main scar, and the whole thing is really ugly. Okay, the appearance has always bothered me, but at least I wouldn't have to deal with the cyst again, right? Wrong. The cyst is back. While we were on vacation I showed it to Nick, and he told me that I needed to go get it removed again, this time by a competent surgeon. I agreed, but it became infected again before we could get back in town. By the time Nick and I were alone and settled in Thursday night I was in too much pain for us to play. I went to the doctor again yesterday morning and he gave me more antibiotics to hopefully clear up the infection. This is the worst possible time for this to happen, because I'm in Nick's sister's wedding in two weeks, in a lovely spaghetti strap bridesmaid's dress. I was going to cover the scar with make-up, but it's going to be a bit more difficult now.

A side note about the surgeon who did the excision: My brother is a surgical tech, and the other day was was telling my mother about this horrible doctor he assisted in a gallbladder removal. Now obviously I'm no surgeon myself, but my brother said that a gallbladder removal is one of the most technically simple surgeries out there. During this simple procedure, the surgeon manage to stab the patient's liver with his scalpel and spill bile all over the open cavity. My brother refused to finish assisting and got someone else to do it because he didn't want to be involved with anything happening in the room. He said this doctor was basically butchering the patient, and the man should not be in practice. I asked him if he was going to report him, and he said that he's been reported numerous times, but he's been lucky enough not to kill anyone yet, so nothing has been done about him. Then I asked him the doctor's name. Yep, it was my surgeon. My brother told me I was lucky not to have ended up with an infection and died.

I won't list his name here, because I have no desire to put something so regionally identifying to myself on here, but I will say that he works solely for Baptist Health Systems. If you are facing surgery with someone in that system, if you will email me with your surgeon's name, I'll tell you if you it's this guy or not.

Anyway, please keep me in your prayers. I'm in a lot of pain right now, and chances are it will get worse before it gets better. Ideally I'd love for the infection to go away and the cyst to be reabsorbed. I really don't want to go through another surgery.