Well, this is gonna be a very descriptive post.
Let's begin.
I should state that everyone who has some sort of major surgery involving going inside the chest cavity most likely requires wires to hold the sternum together while the body heals. The average person gets 3 wires.
It all started after my transplant. It's been a issue since I got my bandages off. One of the wires holding my chest together was always razed and was easy to feel beneath my skin. I pointed it out to my doctors the second I noticed but as always they left something that I was worried about alone. Told me "Just don't rub it and it won't poke through the skin"
Well, fat lot of good that did.
About 3 weeks I came home from a night out and was changing into my PJs. I looked at my chest and noticed that the area around the one wire was a bright yellow. It worried the shit out of me. I called my Transplant Nurse and left her a message. I had to wait till Monday to get anything back because I noticed the yellowness on a Friday night. I would have gone to the Emergency but I didn't feel like waiting for several hours just to be told "There's nothing wrong, go home" even if something was wrong. That seems to be the common answer for me there.
So, Monday comes around and I barely slept. I was waiting for her to call me back because it greatly bothered me. Transplant was supposed to end this weird medical shit so anything out of the norm worries me.
Ends up calling me back around noon. I explain how yellow it was and she just assumed I hit my chest on something and bruised it.
Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I'm very cautious of my chest. I've never liked anything touching my chest, even before transplant, even as a kid. Cystic Fibrosis has always made me very careful to never get hit there. And abusive brothers who enjoyed hitting me there would remind me why I didn't like getting my chest hit.
The nurse continues to ignore me about how I'm always careful and just tells me to come in on the Friday.(More waiting, yay) Says that if it does happen to poke through the skin, just put a Band-aid on it. It'll be fine.
Now, I'm no doctor but one would think that something poking through the skin when it shouldn't be would be cause for alarm. Apparently not.
Luckily the week goes by and nothing bad happened. The yellowness went down and it was all better. She tells me to get an X-ray and we'll go from there. I get the X-ray and it shows just how close the tip of the wire is from poking through my skin. Gets the doctor to look at it and they set up a surgery for 2 weeks later.
Sadly, it was the only time the OR had.
Now, here's where I wish I didn't open my mouth about the wire because what happened in that OR was one of the worst things I ever felt in my life. Remember, this is coming from someone who had his lungs replaced so I know pain.
My mom brings me to the Hospital at 7am. She's my ride back. We find the new admission wing of the Hospital, sign in, and spend 5 minutes trying to get the lady signing me in to understand that I know the hospital better then her so I don't need to wait for someone to take me up in a wheel chair to the Day Surgery Ward.
We get up there, I'm told to change into that thing ass Robe in a freezing cold hospital and wait. Sat in the waiting room with my balls freezing for about 30 minutes. They finally take me into the OR (An even colder room, I might add) and lie down on the table. My mom is waiting down the hall for me.
Let's come up with some names for the 2 Nurses and 1 surgeon.
Nurse 1 will be Betty, Nurse 2 will be Wanda, and Surgeon will be Fred.
So Betty grabs this comically large needle and fills it with freezing. I'm thinking they're just joking around with it but sadly I was so very wrong. Fred takes it and stabs my chest with it. Tells me when he injects the freezing it will feel like a massive Bee sting in the chest.
He was right but it didn't hurt that bad. Wanda hands him a Scalpel and asks "Does this hurt" and begins cutting. I kindly inform him that it did hurt. He goes "Huh" and injects more Bee Sting freezing.
Finally finishes cutting in my chest and grabs what I assume were pliers. I couldn't really see. He kept giving me shit about watching because I was breathing on the area that needed to be cut. Takes these plies and begins to try to cut them so he can begin pulling.
Hole Lee Fucking Shit.
It was one of the most painful things I've ever felt in my life. It was like he was taking a tiny section of my sternum and trying to rip it out with claws. This wasn't over in a few seconds either. He kept trying and trying to cut that wire. He actually ended up breaking the first pair of Pliers he had so he had to use another one. This experience lasted over two full minutes. I was screaming and swearing almost at the top of my lungs. All he kept saying was ...
"It'll be over quick"
I wanted to go Exorcist on his ass and just start insulting him over and over.
Then after that pain was over, the top part of my wire fell to the floor and he began to pull the wire out. I wish so badly at this point I was able to pass out from pain. I so fucking badly wish I could have.
The best way I can explain this is imagine a block of cement. Now, imagine that a wire is all looped around inside that block and you have like half a centimeter of wire to pull on. Try pulling on that with all your strength. It won't come out easy.
Now, imagine that the block of cement IS YOUR FUCKING CHEST.
I can't even describe the pain. I really can't.
Just as he finishes pulling out the wire his beeper starts going off. He sews me up, looks at it, and takes off. As he's leaving he tells me not to get the area wet for 10 days and the stitches will dissolve.
And like that, it's over. The entire thing was maybe 10 minutes long but it was the worst ten minutes of my life. Betty and Wanda are telling me to lie down and take my time. They kept apologizing to me about the pain and how there was nothing they could do because they can't freeze the bones.
My mom walks in the room and starts laughing at me like I was over reacting to a needle shot. They all help me up and make sure that I won't pass out.
And that's the story of how I got my wire out. Hope you enjoyed it.
