Huh. It CAN get worse...

So the infection was in the form of an abscess which got really swollen and painful overnight and burst at some point this morning. I discovered at about 6am that my shoulder was wet and realised what had happened.

I cleaned it up and saw I had a pretty big hole left where it burst. A lot of gooey stuff came out, and it was good to get some relief from the pressure build up.

So off we went back to the doctor to get it looked at and apparently it needed opening up to allow it to drain and heal. That involved numbing the area with lidocaine (holy dooley those needles HURT), and using a scalpel to cut along the incision line to open the area where the abscess was, pack it with gauze and cover it up again. Andrew held my hand the entire time, and watched the whole thing. Poor bloke is a little traumatised from watching people inflict pain on me.

So I now have a large oval shaped hole in my chest about 2cm long, 1.5cm wide, and maybe 1cm deep. Twice a day, in the shower, I have to remove the gauze, let soapy water wash over the hole to clean it out, then wet fresh gauze with saline solution, and repack the hole, then cover it with dry gauze.

We got to do this fun sounding task tonight for the first time. Getting the gauze out was a little painful - it stung where I'm guessing it was a little stuck in the deepest bits. The water running over it was ok, and Andrew repacked it for me, which was a little stingy, but not knowing what to expect was probably the worst part of it. Andrew's hands were a little shaky afterwards. It wasn't too painful, and as soon as it was done, we had a relieved giggle about it.

I don't think when Andrew said "for better or for worse", he quite bargained for this!! He has been amazing though, and I know I am incredibly lucky to have someone like him by my side.