So I installed my FlexEM on 11th May, this being my 11th implant and 9th self install. Only difference with this install was I decided to suture it.
Everything seemed fine as usual for the first few days and I removed the sutures on the 18th. However later that my had started swelling up really badly and continued to get worse.
In the early hours of the following morning around 4am I went to the hospital, they said the infection was bad, took my bloods, gave me codeine and the highest dose of Flucloxacillin (2x 500mg 4 times a day). The drew a line around the area that was inflamed and red and told me to come back straight if I develop any other symptoms or the redness spreads beyond the lines.
I went home and a few hours later I wasn’t feeling so good, heart rate was around 130bpm and couldn’t get it to drop and I just felt off but that could’ve been anxiety idk, the swelling also go worse, I went back and they check my blood pressure, temp etc and told me to go home so I did.
Went to bed and slept for a few hours. When I woke up, despite feeling a bit better I noticed the redness had spread beyond the lines by 1-2cm. I called 111 and they had a clinician call me back, they said I needed to go back to the emergency department.
So… back at the hospital again, they checked my temp and blood pressure and heart rate again and sent me through to urgent care. Over 2 hours of waiting and a I finally get seen by a doctor. They told me I needed to be seen by an orthopaedic Doctor and it would take about an hour for them to get there, they also sent me to get my had x-rayed.
Back in the waiting area again and my hand is starting to hurt quite a lot. After an hour of waiting the the pain starts becoming intolerable. Asked how much longer it would be and they said they didn’t know and my fingers were tingling, I couldn’t even close my hand half way and I was getting pretty miserable.
Another hour of waiting passed and still nothing, just more pain. I was thinking about leaving because I was exhausted.
The redness was spreading down my fingers and I said this in the BHD Discord, the legend @amal saw and was very concerned and told me I needed to stay and say something to try and get things sped up, he even called me to see how I was doing which I really appreciated 
I spoke to staff and tried to get across the urgency and finally my name got called and it was the orthopaedic Doctor. He got up the x-rays and had me go over them explaining the functions of all the implants, what they’re made of and how I installed them etc, he seemed pretty curious about it all. Had a look at my hand and had me flex my fingers and wrist etc. he thought the infection itself was pretty isolated still and there was just lots of swelling and inflammation. He decided that it was probably fine to leave the implant in but he said I might need an IV and overnight stay and I said I was all for that and he said that it was good that I was prepared for that.
So back to waiting in the emergency department to get my bloods tested again. While waiting the seroma built up so much pressure that it popped on its own and omg that felt sooo good lol. A while later I got called by the orthopaedic doctor again and he said my white blood cell count and liver stuff and gone up even more so they wanted to keep me in. I told him my hand popped and squeezed some juice out for him to swab.
So I then got sent to an assessment room and got my first IV while they sorted a bed out. I then got a private room with en-suite which was pretty nice. They got me a sling to keep my arm elevated while I slept and they gave me more codeine. By the morning the swelling had gone down a lot and I could close my hand.
I got another IV and then later another orthopaedic doctor came and said 1 more IV and then I could go home after lunch with flucloxacillin and codeine. Physiotherapist also came to see me and make sure I could move my hand and fingers okay. Got my last IV at lunch and went home.
Will be a little while before I get any more implants and I’ll definitely be more careful in the future!
It was quite shocking how quickly this infection seemed to escalate and how little it actually hurt until those last few hours when waiting in the hospital.
