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Hi I’m 9 weeks out and until today wound site appeared to have healed perfectly. This morning I noticed a small area on the incision where it has turned red and there is some fluid/small amount of puss/blood leaking. Should I hit the infection alert button now or wait? My surgeon can takes days to get hold of, should I be contacting my general practitioner doctor? How soon should antibiotics be initiated after these signs to give the best chance of nipping it in the bud? Can any doctor prescribe these or does it need to be the implant specialist? Thank you

Go to your gp immediately

Jonarr wrote:Hi I’m 9 weeks out and until today wound site appeared to have healed perfectly. This morning I noticed a small area on the incision where it has turned red and there is some fluid/small amount of puss/blood leaking. Should I hit the infection alert button now or wait? My surgeon can takes days to get hold of, should I be contacting my general practitioner doctor? How soon should antibiotics be initiated after these signs to give the best chance of nipping it in the bud? Can any doctor prescribe these or does it need to be the implant specialist? Thank you

Hey dude, I’m actually a specialist nurse in the NHS.

Do you have fever? Is the area warm to the touch?

What you’ve described are signs of infection but could also simply be a simple wound tear due to excessive movement or strain.

Try not to panic but do in the first instance make contact with your team. They should be accessible to you!

Saying that it’s 1900 here now so I’d honestly go to A&E where hopefully they can assess and contact an on call urologist who should know what to do!

Good luck.

Thank you for the advice men. My surgeons secretary advised me to see my GP who prescribed flucloxacillin antibiotics (over the phone without actually seeing me). It doesn’t appear to be any worse and I don’t have a fever so I am keeping my fingers crossed and will wait and see.

Jonarr wrote:Thank you for the advice men. My surgeons secretary advised me to see my GP who prescribed flucloxacillin antibiotics (over the phone without actually seeing me). It doesn’t appear to be any worse and I don’t have a fever so I am keeping my fingers crossed and will wait and see.

surprised that your surgeon wouldn't even see you over what it could be a developing infection. I wonder why do i hear and read about so many horror stories and poor doctor treatment from the UK? And i say this as a European.

I got the implant on NHS which is great because it’s free for which I’m grateful, but the downside is they are very cash strapped and it takes a lot of time to see doctors, get a response etc. Also you have no choice of surgeon so easy to get operated on by a low volume guy. I was in a general urology ward where they don’t see many implant patients and whilst some staff were lovely there were definitely some procedural errors that gave me a lot of angst. If/when I need a revision I will definitely find the money to go private. That’s not to say others might not have had a much better NHS experience they excel in many ways