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Posted 11/13/2012 5:07 AM (GMT 0)
I thought I was healing fine from my hernia surgery but last night there was a small amount of bleeding along part of the surgical scar (and a little pus, something might be infected). Now there is part of the area that is red and angry. Sent an email to the surgery. He replied with in an hour and had his nurse call me to make an appointment. I go to the clinic on Wednesday (he said it was odd but not worth rushing to the hospital over).

While intellectually I am sure that my radiation treatments have nothing to do with this - there are times I wonder how much the IGRT might have affected my ability to heal.

Still it's odd that two months after surgery I'd start having a bleeding problem.

Guess that's just part of the emotional toll of PC - fearing every little new ache or pain or medical issue is related to it.

Well, at least it didn't stop me from getting into the workshop tonight. Got more work done on my Christmas list.
Posted 11/13/2012 5:21 AM (GMT 0)
The IGRT could (read could, not definitely will) cause your white blood cell count to drop, which might cause you to have some more infection issues.

My WBC dropped to almost zero for over a year after RT. I was seriously warned by my GP to stay away from groups, sick people, walk the other way if someone sneezed, no movie theaters, fly only if essential (GFMPH qualified as I saw it), etc. Now at 2 years out I am back above the minimums by a hair.

The issue is that IMRT/IGRT hits the bone marrow in your hips, which is a big WBC creation area. Mine was devastated, others have less or no problems.

I kept a bottle of levaquin in my pocket the whole time - hear a sneeze, 10 day dose. On doctor's orders, of course.

Posted 11/13/2012 5:22 AM (GMT 0)
I get it!!! You just wonder about it all. Husband started with a fever coming home from a great vacation last week and it was above the prescribed 100.5 supposedly allowed with chemo and he was having pain in shoulder area. To give me a little slack, he looked like a corpse sitting and sleeping in the seat. It all worked out, but think we all panicked a little. You just never know.
Posted 11/13/2012 7:12 AM (GMT 0)
its worth checking out for sure, andrew, you are doing the right thing. radiation is the gift that keeps on going, trust me, i know this first hand 3 years later with all my serious issues. hopefully you can put your mind to rest after seeing the doctor.

good luck

david
Posted 11/13/2012 5:26 PM (GMT 0)
142 - my last white blood cell count was normal but I am going to ask for another test just to make sure.

Passages - I had a fever of 100.4 a couple of weeks ago but it didn't last long. The urgent care doc
thought I might just have got a virus. Your description sounds like what I had - it didn't last long, couple of days.

David - I am hoping it there is a simple explanation but you never know. Ever since RT I've been finding myself having to email the doctors more that I ever had. Most of my questions usually have something like, "any chance this is a side effect of the radiation?" Most times the doctor comes back with a gentle version of, "You're getting old, not radiation."

Email is one great thing I like about my health plan - there is a web site I can log into to send short questions and requests directly to my doctors. Most of the time I get an answer in a day. Sometimes I get phone from a medical assistant scheduling an appointment.

Andrew
Posted 11/15/2012 4:01 AM (GMT 0)
Saw the surgeon today. Turns out one of the sutures had a problem and he had to dig it out. He said it is a dissolvable stitch that gets absorbed by the body but something went wrong with it and there was a bit of infection and bleeding. So he had to numb me up and get the cutting tools out. He didn't have to go too deep and said it didn't affect the hernia surgery.

Anyway it's fixed for now and he thinks it shouldn't happen again. He wouldn't say if the radiation treatment affected my ability to heal in that area but I am suspicious - seems to me that healing after this surgery is taking longer that other guys I've talked to that have had it.

At least it won't affect my getting into the workshop this weekend.

Andrew
Posted 11/15/2012 4:30 AM (GMT 0)
Sometimes the dissolvable stitches take a long time to dissolve. I was told to use peroxide on my surgical site daily and at two months they were still there. I pulled two out myself with scissors, sterile of course.
So, it does happen and is quite common. I'm thinking that the radiation may not have anything to do with it.

Zimac
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