Friday 21 Feb – I found myself once more at the hospital, this time across the road in outpatients waiting to see a specialist in infectious diseases. I was eventually called in by a  doctor who asked if I minded if two student doctors and a student nurse could sit in on the consultation – I was happy to allow this as I do believe it is the best way for them to learn (indeed, all civil servants in the Health Service should also do some front line service … as long as they leave health decisions to the professionals!). Accompanied by my wife, six of us squeezed into a tiny office just behind Reception. The doctor, a young woman, proved to be extremely efficient and thorough, and explained (what my GP had already told me) that the information gathered so far from the biopsy was that I had a water borne infection belonging to the TB family, but until the culture had grown sufficiently they would not be able to establish more specifically the precise culprit.This could take anything between one and three weeks and until they were sure what it was they would not start me on any course of antibiotics as an incorrect regime could compromise the eventual outcome.

The worst news was that once i started the drugs i would be on them for … wait for it …

TWO YEARS!!!

This was a particularly rare infection with a long incubation period and was more difficult to treat, hence the lengthy drugs regime. When I picked myself up off the floor, the doc gave me a full physical examination to check that the infection had not spread to the lymph nodes and lungs … all clear … I needed some good news!

There then followed a lengthy Q/A session on where I thought I may have picked up the infection over the last year, as apparently it can incubate inside the body from just 2 days to over a year. Starting with foreign travel, we had been on holiday to India in Jan ’12 which included a trip to Varanasi and a boat ride on the Ganges – we were all very aware of the contaminated water and didn’t knowingly place ourselves in direct contact with it, but a trip on the boat meant we were in close indirect contact. Other sources during the year where I may have come in to contact with a water borne infection included our fish pond, our hot tub and our motorhome’s onboard water system … I hadn’t been swimming in either a pool or the sea at all in the previous year.  I shared the photos of the finger which I’d taken  on an almost daily basis from pre-op days to present time which the doctor and students found helpful and informative.

I now had no choice but to wait till the culture had grown sufficiently for an accurate diagnosis … I would be telephoned the moment they knew more.

True to the doctor’s word, I eventually got the call on Monday 4 March. She was on annual leave but had taken the trouble to phone me as soon as she knew, and arranged for me to collect the drugs from a colleague on another ward in the main hospital around 17.00. I went to catch the bus (parking is atrocious around the hospital) – the bus was running late (traffic is atrocious around this time each day) – and got to the hospital at 17.15, hurried along to the ward in question, which turned out to be Infectious Diseases (didn’t want to catch another one!), just in time to catch the doctor ‘colleague’ charged with the drugs handover trying to phone me to find out where I was. She handed over a large bag containing 3 different types of antibiotics, plus a different statin to replace my current statin because one of the new antibiotics would react with it.

I decided to start my next two years of taking drugs the following day on Tuesday 5 March.

For those with a medical degree, the drugs are:

RIFAMPICIN (600mg), ETHAMBUTOL (1200mg) AND CLARITHROMYCIN (1000mg)

Some needed to be taken between 30 mins and 60 mins before eating, so the morning time pre-breakfast seemed as good a time as any. Dressings were being changed daily by my wife, now an expert on dressing hands and fingers, as well as expertly cutting up my meals into bite size chunks … spaghetti was out of the question for the time being. I was also practising writing skills using my right hand and could now do an accurate impression of a 5 year old – though it didn’t look too convincing on cheques.

This is how the hand and finger are looking on the day I started the drugs:

NICE!

Enjoy your meal! Cut up by you alone … I’m not envious …

NEXT – Drugs and Rock’n’Roll – Band rehearsal and the drugs take effect …