Sigh. Thigh lift groin incisions.

I thought I had turned a corner the last few days until I realized today that my groin incisions didn't look the same as all my others. Despite the cleaning, betadine, bandaging etc. I think I've developed an infection - it's such a moist, close area perfect for bacteria. I sent pics to my surgeon and he wants to see me within 24 hours rather than wait for my appt Wednesday. Wah!!!!!! Why did I think I was going to have an easy time of this?!?!?

Oh no! How awful! I hope that it heals quickly!

Thighs are tough for many people, which is why I chose not to have them done. I'm glad to hear your surgeon wants to see you sooner than later.

Please imagine this liberally peppered with the F word and sobs...

My good friends rearranged their days to drive me up to what ended up to be a 5pm appointment. It's 60 miles each way from my house in LA rush hour traffic. The office person had told me they all leave at 5, so we would need to stand in the hallway until the doctor showed up. Fine. We make pretty good time up there and are literally getting off the freeway at his exit when she calls and tells me he won't be able to make it.

I was speechless. She said she can fit me in tomorrow at 2. I said, but I already had an appointment tomorrow at 11! Oh she gave that away. All I could say was, you're kidding over and over. She finally said I could still come at 11.

So I burst into tears for the 3rd time today and start apologizing profusely to my friends as we get off the freeway and back on in the other direction to head home.

Total time in the car for absolutely nothing: 3 and a half hours. And I am now a double-booked appointment at my original time tomorrow. And I still have infected incisions. I could not be more disappointed with how he runs his office.

My friends said not to make decisions while I'm so upset, but honestly after this and the "get a bedpan" answer when I called for help after become incontinent after the catheter was removed, I'm not sure I'll use him for my remaining surgery.

Oh Cecily, how awful! I can't imagine your frustration! I too am dependant on the generosity of friends to get to my appointments and it can involve some horrendous traffic. I feel your pain!

Your friends are right that right now is not the time to fire your surgeon or his staff but you need to document the incidents and write them up in every place that you can leave reviews! I read those reviews thoroughly before I chose my surgeon and it is your best ammunition right now. PS depend on word of mouth references and good reviews for getting patients because they are not the only game in town. Customer service is very important to me and lots of other people who are spending lots of money.

Hang in there and I wish you good healing and a quick recovery!

PS don't forget to write this up on OH and RealSelf

I agree about the write ups - I relied on them as well. But when all results are in (not when emotional).

Yep. I'll wait until all is said and done. i know someone could easily find my surgeon on posts, but I'm purposely not putting his name on these to give him some benefit of the doubt and allowing for my general depressed mood about having complications. I'm interested in what he'll have to say today about what happened...

I wondered if you might be having second thoughts about him. Your friends are counseling wisely, you should wait until in a better frame of mind to decide. It could be his office staff causing the confusion rather than your surgeon. In the meantime I hope you get on a good path with this today.

Let us know how the appointment goes today.

Argh. I typed out a very long pst and it got eaten....

So my appointment went really well. The doctor apologized and explained that his surgery yesterday was supposed to end at 1:30 and it didn't end until 7:30. He said I wouldn't have wanted him working on me at the end of that day. I think that's a fair statement.

He said I have wound dehiscence rather than an infection. Dehiscence is where the tissues separates and dies along the incision line. It's fairly common with a medial thigh lift and was not helped by my early incontinence and accompanying bacteria.

He cleaned out all the dead tissue (not at all painful as the tissue was dead). Everything that I could see that was yellow/gray was not pus, but was dead tissue, hence the smell. After cutting away all the dead tissue, he showed me how to pack the rather alarmingly large holes that he said not to be concerned about with gauze soaked in Dakin's solution (has bleach in it, but doesn't hurt either) - they will heal and fill in from the bottom up and sides in. He said there won't be any need for a skin graft or surgical repair even though it looks a bit alarming now.

He also removed all my lipo stitches and took out 2 more drains (still 2 to go). He showed me how to massage my lipo'ed chin to break up the scar tissue and smooth it out.

I explained how easily I become upset and he gave the same explanation we all hear before WLS - fat holds hormones and when it's disturbed through surgery and lipo, many of his patients become very emotional, eespecially the lipo patients. I had a lot.

Bottomline, I understand what happened and why he couldn't see me. It's just really unfortunate that I'm coming from very far away on LA freeways. The scheduler made me an appointment for next week and said she'd work on her end so I would come in midday rather than morning or afternoon to avoid traffic. I felt like she was trying to be very accommodating after yesterday. I feel better and feel really happy to have my wounds addressed and a plan to get them back on track.