NOTE: THIS POST
WILL BE FULL OF REPULSIVE PICTURES.
[Continued from previous post]
After I was being knocked down on the floor , the driver came out of his van after stopping his van at a distance, with a traumatic expression on his face. I WANT TO EMPHASIZE ON HIM
NOT OFFERING ANY HELP "hello???
Ain't you supposed to offer some help, instead of standing there like a
blockhead?". Do you have any sense of conscience? Writing this
hoping that the driver will see, and he get sue to claim back insurance. Okay,
I think I am just venting my anger.
Back on the topic, fortunately, a passerby came,
and asked if I was okay. She was stunned when she
saw what happened. Immediately, my mum and dad was called down within minutes.
She was tearing and flustered by the time she reached. By that time, I couldn't
really feel my foot, guessed it was numbed. It was until the ambulance came,
and the paramedic came to elevate my foot and onto the stretcher. That's
when I felt an anguishing pain when my foot was lifted up from the floor.
Traffic polices came and took statement for the driver, but I was not aware of
what's happening in my surroundings. I was feeling appalled, lost and
devastated by the deformity and pain of my foot. I tried to cry, I cried, but
no tears came out. I don't know how to describe that feeling, but it just feels
like it be better if I am unconscious you know.
I was being sent to Changi General A & E
department as it was the nearest to my house. The paramedics pushed me inside
and they stationed me in one empty slot. Nurses came, gave me an injection of
morphine to relieve the pain. After a while the pain subsided. A few nurses
started to surround me with a packet of sterile equipment. I was
panic-stricken. What are they going to do to my foot? The moment they opened up
the cloth I felt a acute pain. Next they poured some liquid(it is to disinfect
my wound) over my foot, that's when I felt the knife-like cutting pain. Again I
feel that I be better off unconscious.
The priorities to undergo surgeries were given to
life threatening situations I was being told that I will receive my
treatment in the noon around 12-2. However, I waited all the way to 8 pm plus
at night to receive my treatment. From 12-2, to 6pm, to 8 pm, my parents and I
were being told that there was not enough surgical wards, there was only 2 for
A & E I think? Imagine the pain I had to go through after the effect of
morphine had subsided?
DON"T GO TO SINGAPORE CHANGI GENERAL HOSPITAL.
It's not a good hospital. Services and food can't be compared with the
good services SGH has.
So at 8pm, I was being pushed into the surgical
ward to receive my first operation. In total I had three operations.
1) TO CLEANSE THE WOUNDS, SCRAP OFF THE DIRTY
SCRAPS OF FLESH AS ROAD IS DIRTY.The first operation
took about 3 hours. If my open wounds were not treated, there will be high risk
of infection. My foot was being wrapped like a dumpling after the first op, so
I was not appalled by the deformity of my foot.
2) SECOND OPERATION: ORTHOPEDIC (BONE OP)
This op took about 2-3 hours I could not remember clearly. It is to fix my fifth toe with a cay wire as the the bones were fractured and some parts of the bones were gone. A metal chain was added connecting from the fifth toe to the ankle to support the bones. My 3rd and 4th toe also lost some bones, but doctor says it wouldn't affect walking. The doctor still joked with me that my bones were somewhere on Tampines ave 3 suntanning on the road or being fed to the crows. I WAS LIKE -.-, NOT IN THE MOOD FOR JOKES.
So this is after the 2nd op was done for the orthopedic portion. Taken by doctor in the surgical ward.
Fortunately they didn't left it open, as it causes high risk of infection due to open wounds. So they wrapped it up (I think it looks like seaweed) and there was a tube connecting to my foot. It actually is a pump to discharge the dirty blood to prepare for the 3rd operation. It was left there for like 3-4 days. I could actually feel the pump trying to pump out my blood.
SEAWEED FOOT
At the sixth day, I was being transferred over to SGH for the 3rd operation, skin flap operation under PLASTICS department. Reason being transferred was that only SGH had this department which is plastic surgery. Being curious, I did some research on the difference between skin flap and skin graft.
SKIN FLAP AND SKIN GRAFT
Flap surgery is a technique in plastic and reconstructive surgery where any type of tissue is lifted from a donor site and moved to a recipient site with an intact blood supply. This is similar to but different from a graft, which does not have an intact blood supply and therefore relies on growth of new blood vessels. This is done to fill a defect such as a wound resulting from injury or surgery when the remaining tissue is unable to support a graft, or to rebuild more complex anatomic structures such as breast or jaw.
To summarize, it basically means that skin flap is a more complicated surgery as compared to skin graft. Skin flap involves connecting of blood tissues,vessels with an intact blood supply. Skin graft only involves taking the outer layer of skin.
In my situation mine was a crush injury, so actually the tissues were all badly damaged and skin graft could not support it. It took about 8 hours for my operation to complete as the operation is complicated.
Just After the operation.....
From the picture you can see blood on the flap and it was a pale whitish skin colour. The blood stains were caused by small little pricks by the doctors and nurses. The first five days were the crucial part of survival of skin flaps. As the tissues were just connected, it is important to ensure that blood flow is intact, flowing through the flap. Flaps may not survive for a few reasons, mainly due to infections and blockage of blood vessels. Symptoms of dying is that the flap may turn black. That is why doctors and nurses use needles to prick the flap and check if there is blood flow. They also use a special equipment to check for the sound of blood flow "I call it checking heartbeat of my flap" every hour for five days, nurses come to listen to the sound of blood vessels and main arteries. The sound of blood vessels had a soft shooshing tempo while the main arteries had a louder, firmer thumping tempo.
After five days and more....
As you can see, that the color of my flap is starting to adjust according to my skin tone. The color will take maybe 5-6 months roughly to match your natural skin. My toes were covered with TG and antibiotic cream to prevent my toes from sticking together. PS: I have stitches not only around the flap, in between all my toes and underneath of my foot were full of stitches.
After putting my leg down...
After putting my leg down for learning crutches, my foot starts to change to a reddish black blue color, and starts to swell. This was after 10 plus days after the op. After 10 plus days, doctor asked the nurse to remove alternates stitches. However, the nurse removed more than required, and it resulted in the wounds gaping apart.
DOCTOR HAD TO GIVE ME ANOTHER 20-30 STITCHES ON THE SPOT TO COVER THE GAPING WOUNDS.
Initially the doctor was worried that the skin underneath my foot may die. As you can see, the skin was black. But eventually, luckily it managed to recover.
For the image above, the flap was less swollen and color is nearer to my skin color. This was around 1 month plus after my discharge at the check up.
Well doctor stitched up the hole and my foot look like this now. Stitches for flap removed. Cay wire on fifth toe removed. Just waiting for the hole to recover, and this coming tues i am going to therapy to learn to put my foot down. My leg has been elevated for two months. My foot is now full of dead skin waiting to be shed like a snake to have new skin.
RECAP: FROM START
TO NOW
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