Post appendix nightmare - anyone got any advice

[Mascarponeandwine]

My 11yo son had his appendix out by keyhole surgery 10 days ago and life has been a nightmare since. In and out of hospital 3 times, now been in since Thursday. He has a wound infection (subcutaneous?) but ultrasound didn’t show a large mass, and his temperament keeps spiking. He’s been on two lots of iv antibiotics but tbh it’s not really making a difference. No preexisting conditions and the doctors can’t work out what’s happening with the temperature spikes. Feels like all this is far worse than the appendix symptoms. Anyone know anything about this - will it ever end?

He was definitely a bit allergic to that numbing cream and dressing (before they attempt canula’s etc). His skin went red and looked irritated.

Will see what it looks like tomorrow morning. Hopefully shower water has made it a bit damp and sore.

I think that looks ok. It will have a lot of blood flow to the area as it heals. I've attached a photo of my own surgical leg wound which was infected (And the red patch increased rapidly) for comparison.

And this is my son's head, it isn't just as pink as your boys wound area but it isn't as deep

Definitely get a felt tip and mark the outer boundaries though. If it spreads seek help.

Did give him oral antibiotics to go home with?

No oral abs, 4 days post op iv abs then nothing. They said that would be enough.

Worried that the hard lump I can feel is some pus. Like before. It wasn’t serious in the same way as the bowel infection but they did see to it when he was in surgery (small incision and removed small amount of pus)

You can see the incision between the two blotches

I wouldn’t overly worry about that,especially as he is eating and not spiking temps.Do what OMG said and draw a line round it and get it seen to if it spreads.

Massively reduced this morning! Thank goodness. Still a hard lump underneath but not actually right underneath the red area. So hopefully scar tissue. Maybe we get a Sunday hospital free after all !

That looks ok,thank goodness he is on the mend!Hope you have a restful day.

The lump underneath is most likely dissolvable stitches in the muscle. Glad he's recovering well OP

It’s looking angrier tonight and still has a hard lump underneath. The pinkness around the cut is a bit puffy and swollen. I phoned the ward who said if he doesn’t have a high temperature (37.6) then see the gp tomorrow.

I don’t know whether to waste time with the gp though. Might have to wait ages for an appointment, only for them to say it’s infected with pus undernwath you need to go back up the hospital. Which is what happened last time. Maybe should just get up a&e and wait for one of the paediatric surgeons who know him.

He says it doesn’t hurt it’s not a problem and he’s not going to the hospital again

I had my appendix out in 2015 (had burst) but I had a relatively smooth journey compared to your DS. However, not to be recommended, but I squeezed an angry raised bit near my wound when it got out of the bath a couple of weeks post op and it was full of pus.

I ended up with two weeks worth of antibiotics.

Do whatever you feel happiest with after everything your DS has been through wine.

Did they admit you? He’s scared of having to be admitted, blood tests, canulas. God knows how we’d all cope if all that started again

Hi OP, what a shame you’re still having these concerns! I can’t tememver if I said earlier in the thread but DS’ wound would not heal. We ended up seeing the practise nurse or GP every day for 3 weeks to get the dressing changed & some silvery??? ointment applied.
It looked very similar to your pics.
Hope you get some sleep & that it looks better in the morning

Diangled did it feel firm/hard underneath the red area? I’m wondering if pus has built up again.

No OP, I wasn’t admitted but they did swab it at my GPS and changed the antibiotics after the first five day course.

Yes it did. He had a lump that was more obvious at the incision near his groin which was alarming but went over the following weeks.
Our GP told me very clearly that it would be a while before we saw DS back to full fitness & she was right. I do feel for you, it just feels relentless.

He’s been to the gp and got antibiotics. They think it’s inflammation and will settle but giving ab’s just in case. They said it also feels hard under the other scar that’s healed well, so they are going to see if the ab’s work. It’s not a big problem though. Back to the big hospital if it gets worse, as they might have to physically go in and release the pus (hopefully that is a small procedure though and doesn’t require being admitted).

How's he doing now?