Friday, November 2, 2012

Wow. That's all I can say. Wow. The world is just CAREENING out of control and our lives go on. We spent three hours at the hospital this morning. This has been such an emotional day. At one point I was sitting in the wheelchair outside the exam room having a good old fashioned cry.

Here is a picture of what greeted us when all the dressing was off. To the untrained eye, like mine, it doesn't look like much. In fact, I don't really know what I expected, but the doctor was EXTREMELY pleased with the graft. She said it took very well. 

The tendon down in the foot is another matter. She really had to cut away and there is still some infection somewhere. A culture was taken and it turns out to be pseudomonis. This was the same bacteria that would show up on the gauze wraps and had to be dressed with gauze soaked in Dakins solution, the saline water/bleach solution. Topically it's not bad. When it is down in the foot, however, that's another story. We are being sent to the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the hospital and expecting a call from the Radiology Department for a CT Scan of the foot. That will be done to see if there is any infection in the bone. I'm going to pick up his prescriptions for two antibiotics that work together to get rid of the bacteria. The Infectious Disease doc will decide if Mike will have to have IV antibiotics. If that's the case, he will have that done at the same Wound Clinic because it's actually the Infusion and Wound Clinic. They can change the bandages daily and administer the IV drugs daily. But for now, it's pills while we see how far this is in the foot. We have opted for the time being not to go back on the Wound VAC.

The skin graft itself is interesting. That is actually a few layers of skin, although very see-through. If you look carefully you can see the pattern of the machine that punctured the holes for breathing and drainage. Doctor was quite happy with that. If we can get the pseudomonis under control, this will then be a success.

Mike had the dressing PEELED off his stomach this morning. Ugh, that was PAINFUL. No matter how much saline solution or Lidocaine was poured onto it, it was being pulled from raw skin. And bleed! Bled like a stuck pig. He did grab onto my arm once in absolute agony. Apparently that was payback for the contraction I had in labor with Ali that ground his hand and wrist into the plastic siding on the bed.

We're even now. Stay tuned.