This is Doug's back just hours after having an emergency surgical procedure to remove a sebaceous cyst from his back. For years he has had a cyst growing on his back, right in the middle along his spinal line. It's been checked regularly by our GP who assured him it was fine and that it didn't need to be removed or have anything done. It had even grown to about an inch long and sticking quite far out from his back. They are something that just happens for some people. Unless it got infected...
Which of course it did. It went from being a lump that didn't bother him to swollen and infected within a matter of days and our GP referred us to a specialist. Upon calling I found out the waiting list without private health was around a year, going private without insurance would cost us $180 for the initial consult, then probably $2-4k for the surgery. As "luck" would have it, he ended up in the emergency 2 days later when it got to bad to bear, which resulted in it being removed the next day after spending the night in the hospital on IV antibiotics. I had NO idea how huge the surgical procedure would be, but they ended up having to put him to sleep, then slicing a piece out, removing the entire lump, including the casing and roots kind of thing around it that were holding into his back. It left a gaping hole, 2 cms deep and about 3.5cm long. They weren't able to stitch it closed as it had developed an abscess with the infection, meaning it has to be packed with surgical swabbing every day for the first week, then every second day afterwards for a few weeks. Wowsers. Literally has to heal from the inside, out.
I would like to say here, this was all at NO COST to our family. For the surgery, the overnight stay, the medication and the follow up home visits. I feel blessed every single day to be an Australian and to have the amaaaazing health care we do. Thank goodness it went through emergency and we didn't have to wait!
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