Staples were taken out at midday and the district nurse said that the swelling was normal so no concerns, the wound was left uncovered. At 2pm W noticed that blood was seeping through so he put on a pad to absorb it.
At 12.50am I was woken with W shouting me. I went to him and he was soaked in the blood stained fluid which had come through a slight gap between where the staples had been and some stitches. I cleaned him up, I was just about to put another dressing on when a gush of this fluid shot out all over him, I sorted this the best I could and got him to stay on his side. I called the out of hours district nurse and was advised to call the paramedics. Paramedics arrived about 15 minutes later. I had already explained to the operator what was wrong and that W was recovering from a hysterectomy and phalloplasty and the bleed was from the incision across his abdomen.The manner of one of the paramedics was disgusting, as he came into my home I was directing him to W's room, he was asking me what was wrong, I explained that it was a bleed etc, he then asked what operation he had had, do these operators not inform the paramedics? He very rudely said, a hysterectomy? I have never heard of a bloke having a hysterectomy! I was mortified, he walked into W asking him what was this all about a man having a hysterectomy, I was dumbfounded and speechless, I felt like I would burst into tears at any moment. I managed to say that he was having gender re-assignment surgery, not that it had anything to do with them! When they tried to get W up he only had a t shirt on, so was conscious that a) I was there b) they were standing extremely close to him. As he stood up he moved to the side to keep his dignity and the ignorant paramedic said, "Don't be shy". I couldn't believe what I was hearing, poor W they were invading his privacy, it was so obvious this was a first for them!
Off we go in the ambulance, half way up our street W notified the paramedic that the doors were not shut properly, was this a sketch for a comic strip? The driving ignorant paramedic had not even heard the door open alarm going off.
At the hospital, it was extremely quiet, 3 hours later and a nurse came to give W a gown. W asked to go to the toilet, they supplied him with a bottle, how humiliating, W was determined to pee in this bottle if it was the last thing he did.
Eventually we were seen by a doctor, a lovely understanding doctor, but once again we had to tell 'the story'. This doctor was unsure what to advise and did suggest maybe he would have to go into surgery, over my dead body, I would drive W to London first! A second doctor came, prodded around and said he would get a nurse to pad it, go home and return to your own surgery for clean dressings.
Arrived home just after 5am, cleaned up the mess in the bedroom, scrubbed his mattress made his bed, put the bedding in the washing machine, text my colleagues to explain I would be in later, left a message on the school answer phone and tried to get some sleep, no chance, good job I love my son!
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