| Dec 30,
2005
Scott C. Roberts
The Tale of Events from PCC Presidential
Ride- Deep Penetration!
Dear Fellow Riders,
Thought you would appreciate a little tale of adventure that started out
innocuously enough on the 13th of November.
1 Said participant (me), started off with the masses
on the PCC Presidential Ride. What a blast it was, from start to finish!
Well
done PCC!!!!
2 While trying to catch up to the front riders (Pat,
Patrick and two others), Adli (Ice T) and I kept up a nice pace on our
own.
3 Up comes the Teratak Tekala trail which we start enjoying,
and along comes The Pipes. We descend the track eying those lovely black
slick tubes running down to the meadow. Sure enough, we do our fair share
of tumbling crossing these not once, but twice. On the second
fall, I land hard on what I thought was only a rock.
4 Up I jump, back on my bike, feeling like someone gave
me a Charlie Horse on my right calf.
5 Finish the ride (4th I might add J having caught and
passed Ridwan!), and someone goes “oooooh, look at your leg.”
So I do, and
notice two small cuts and a calf that is ½ as big as the other
one! Detol, compliments of Pat, should do the trick.
6 Monday, 14 Nov. My leg looks infected. Eh? Two small
cuts? In I go to the clinic that evening, and sure enough, the Dr. Chong
says
“Infection, take these antibiotics and come back daily to see how
it’s progressing.”
7 Tuesday, 15 Nov. Dr. Malkit (my favorite) is now on
duty, looks at my leg and says “It’s really infected. You
need to take more powerful
antibiotics. Add these to what you’re taking and come back on Thursday.
8 Thursday, 17 Nov. Dr. Malkit looks at my leg, pauses,
grabs a pair of forceps from his tray, and decides to probe the bigger
of two cuts
on my leg above the now increasing swelling. The forceps go in and don’t
stop. At the screw joint of the forceps, resistance encountered,
and then frees up to go a total of 2” into my leg. Forceps come
out, and then a gush of pus comes behind it. Badly infected J! Dr. Malkit
enjoys watching my face as he scrapes the hole bigger to create a clear
channel. Inserts a wick six times to clean it, then leaves a
final piece of gauze (wick) in my leg. Covers everything up with a bandage
and says “come back for daily dressing.”
9 Friday, 18 Nov. – Thursday, 24 Nov. I enjoy the
experience of “pipe cleaning” by the nurse and the gleeful
look of Dr. Malkit while
he has fun with my leg.
10 Friday, 25 Nov. I’ve gotten
used to the pipe cleaning, remove my own bandaging, pushing on the bulge
beneath the opening to flush out
the pus, etc. This time, however, the gauze pops out the wick without
me needing to remove it with my fingers ... along with a ¼
inch of wood. I think “Eureka, the source”!!!! Dr. Malkit
says “hmmmm” and pulls out tweezers and forceps to repeat
#8 above.
11 Saturday, 26 Nov. Dr. Malkit decides that there is
still too much pus, and has to cut me open. For the first time since this
started
(thankfully), he used local anesthetic! He makes a 1-cm incision horizontally,
two small incisions high and low, and snip, slice, snip,
slice; away goes infected tissue. With this procedure, he only finds three
small pieces of wood bark. Urgh.
12 Sunday, 27 Nov. – Saturday, 10 December. I’m
in Langkawi on business (honestly) and Dr. Malkit is in Paris on vacation,
so we take
a wee break from this fun. I get to clean and dress my leg which doesn’t
seem to stop oozing. At least the wick isn’t in my leg
anymore. In Langkawi on the 9th of Dec., three small pieces of bark and
a splinter pop out of my leg. Yummy. Just before dinner, too J!
13 Monday, 12 Dec. – Dr. Malkit’s back! Yahoo!!!!
I go and see him, and he’s shocked that it still hasn’t healed.
Continues to monitor
everything with daily dressing. Still no wick.
14 Friday, 16 Dec. – Pus still building up in leg
which indicates more “foreign bodies” are inside. Urgh. Recommends
that I go to the
hospital to get a proper “debridement” under General Anesthesia.
15 Saturday, 17 Dec. Great timing with the KLMBH dinner
that night I go see a surgeon at Damansara Hospital that morning and he
concurs
with the findings and checks me into a room right away. My favorite floor
(3rd) where I’ve been on three occasions in the past! Surgery
scheduled for 3.30 p.m., I’m prepped, go under, wake up, and the
good doctor shows me a jar of two pieces of very small chunks of bark.
Suspect that this is it. We check out just in time to make it to the dinner
where I get to show off my bleeding bandages J! Ooooh rahhh!!!
16 Sunday, 18 Dec. The day before the nurse said I was
responsible for cleaning my own leg, so on Sunday morning I took off the
bloody
bandages and saw a hole 2-cm in diameter packed with gauze. Agh. No stitches.
I remove the gauze and look down into the hole 1 - ½ cm
deep. Holy sh**. I’m supposed to dress and clean this myself? I
attempt it to the best of my abilities and only manage to cram some
gauze into the hole without any neatness to it.
17 Monday, 19 Dec. I’m back at Dr. Malkit’s
clinic to let them do the gruesome task of properly dressing the thing.
18 Tuesday, 20 Dec. – Monday 26 Dec. Only bandaging
required. Phew!!! Have managed to go white water kayaking once and mountain
biking three times, covering my healing wound with OpSite J during these
outings. Have also gone to the gym every day which keeps my
sanity! Hydrogen Peroxide works miracles if there’s any dirt or
sweat in the wound. However, one small channel in the side of the wound
continues to ooze pus. Merry F** Christmas!!!!
19 Tuesday, 27 Dec. Dr. Malkit looks at that pinhole
of a channel and picks up the forceps from his tray. Step # 8 repeated.
This time,
however, it isn’t as much as a joy since I know what’s going
to happen. I mutter “you SOB” as he creates a very brand new
and broad
channel, to which he gleeful says “Thank You.” Note that he’s
been trying to get me to take up ballet for the past six weeks instead
of
extreme sports! Nothing found, back in goes the wick for the first time
in a couple of weeks.
20 Wednesday, 28 Dec. The nurse takes the wick out of
my leg and on it is yet another small piece of bark. Dr. Chong is on duty
and
decides to pretend he’s Dr. Malkit. #8 from above is repeated and
he is more sadistic than Dr. Malkit. I don’t know how this is feasible,
but I can actually see under my skin at the cavity that both doctors have
created. Back in goes the wick and I’m back on antibiotics.
21 Thursday, 29 Dec. Dr. Malkit’s back!!!!! He
repeats #8, but this time the probe hits something gritty feeling. Hmmmmm.
He takes a
syringe, fills it with saline solution and flushes the hole with the solution
six times. After the last squirt, he takes the forceps,
inserts them into the highway in my leg and probes. Out comes a 1”
piece of wood which is ¼ of an inch in diameter at the top, tapering
off to a point. See pics !!!!!!
...........it's a boy!
Is it over????????? I am SICK of this and hope so J! Regardless, tomorrow
morning I’m going mountain biking again, only the 4th time
since the PCC ride.
Enjoy and stay tuned for the conclusion to this saga!
Cheers,
TDF
aka Scott aka Hare Raiser!
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