We contacted our GP the
next morning who came round and examined me and although I was
not passing water could not find anything to be concerned about.
By early the next morning having slept in my electric recliner
chair because my husband and son could not move me , we called
the Breast Care Unit of Hillingdon hospital. Answer phone, don’t
open till 9 am.
Just before 9 am a friend popped in and we were all getting very
concerned. I suggested we call the ward I was on and by good fortune
my surgeon was by the phone. "Bring her straight in I will
see her now " he said but my husband told him it was impossible
to move me, he needed an ambulance.
"Try " he said and for one of the first times in my life we thanked
God I had a wheelchair and the riser chair and with my friend’s help my husband
got me into the car and up to the ward where my surgeon was waiting.
He did not know what was wrong except he could see I was very
ill and had me admitted straight away for a CT scan and tests.
There was no problem with the wound . I was put on a drip to balance
my fluids . The CT scan showed that the kidneys were not damaged
but were not functioning.
It was the second scan a few hours later that enabled one of
the other surgeons on his team to spot the darkening growing patch
on my right side and I have to thank him for identifying that I
had NF, the 6th case this hospital had ever seen. I was told that
if I had waited for an ambulance and gone through the process of
casualty because things develop so fast I may not have made it!
By now I had been moved to Intensive Care. ‘Sally is very ill‘
he explained .‘Necrosis’ means death of a portion of tissue and
‘fascia’ is the name of fibrous tissues which enclose and connect
the muscles. It is caused by a streptococcal infection which acts
aggressively and very fast and starts in a wound or broken skin.
There is a very high death rate. We have to operate as soon as
possible to remove the affected tissue. This will be extensive
and will need plastic surgery and skin grafting.
What was happening was unimaginably unreal and what was to transgress
in the next months was just horrifying . The surgery which was
done to save my life was abhorrent.
A third of the flesh of my torso was eventually removed and after
just over three weeks in Intensive Care in Hillingdon hospital
I was moved to the Regional Burns Unit at Mount Vernon Hospital
in Northwood, fortunately where I live, where I spent the next
3 months. The plastic surgeon I was under modestly said ‘he only
put me back together, the surgeons at Hillingdon saved your life!‘
The skilful nursing care, for I was totally helpless, together
with that of the help and encouragement of the physiotherapists
and occupational therapists was wonderful in spite of that fact
that they had to work with outdated equipment, shortages, using
unskilled staff, in unclean and drab wards.
I was discharged from the hospital under the care of the Hillingdon
Rapid Response Team which eventually got me back miraculously to
almost my old self again . Although left with horrendous and painful
scars these are hidden under my clothes and I am now picking up
the pieces where I left off just a year ago. In fact I am now starting
on my second book, on my life :-
The Unluckiest, Luckiest Person ALIVE !
This was not the first time in my life I had overcome serious
life threading illness, putting my family through trauma of almost
unbearable magnitude. I now have faced and miraculously come through
the experience three times, each time under quite unrelated circumstances.
These left me classified one of this country’s chronically sick
and disabled. In spite of this my life has continued, blossomed
and been full of achievement and love. This is the story I will
tell if a publisher would take it up!
I can be contacted by email by clicking here, mailto:sally.fiber@blueyonder.co.uk
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