Is that light the end of the tunnel?

This was taken today at Wound Care.

There are only three very small places left on the top of the foot. Just about the ONLY place there is swelling anymore is the toes and the front half of the foot. The graft site seems to be expanding to fit more of the contour of the leg. He's been doing a lot of walking and the muscle is no longer so atrophied, but building. The seams of the graft are just beautiful and completely healed. The variations in color are mellowing out and it's looking more normal. The girls aren't taking any chances, though, and are strictly sticking to protocol to get these last few places totally healed up. Again, the slow spot seems to be over the tendon on top that seemed to take longer than any other area to cover with granulation. Because of all the time he's spent lying down with the foot elevated, he has done a lot of flexing and rolling his ankle so it doesn't become stiff and any more arthritic than it is. He has a very good range of motion in the ankle, the nurses were quite but to get the top large spot completely healed, he needs to lay off that for a little bit. No signs anywhere of problems or infection. What used to take nearly an hour to accomplish in a visit now can be done in 20 minutes or less. As of Thursday he has been off all prescription pain meds completely for two weeks and is not going back, no small feat considering the months that Dilaudid flowed through him in large amounts.

I have remarked many times that this has been as difficult mentally and emotionally as it has been physically. It was important to him to get off the pain meds. His father was a narcotic pill popper and he's done everything he can to not be anything like his family. There hasn't been alcohol for over 10 years anywhere near him, and to have had the pain pills this long bothered him. He did go through withdrawal, but focused on what he was accomplishing instead of berating himself that "I'm no better than my father." To him this was a very personal challenge for that reason, but it also meant closing the door on one more aspect related to this battle with nec/fac. He had an appointment with his regular doctor today and instead of the milk chocolate he's been eating to help with the withdrawal, the doctor instead said he'd rather it be dark chocolate for several reasons. It won't mess so much with his blood sugar, lots of antioxidants, and because of the sharpness of the taste you're less likely to eat as much of it. Duly noted, getting some tomorrow.

I showed the doctor the photo below and he was blown away by how well Mike has healed. "To have gone through what you've gone through, being almost 50 and Type 1 diabetic since 1988, once we get this testosterone back up, you will be like a kid again." He was very proud of how well Mike's done. 

However, the visit today was not entirely a happy one. In December 2011 he was found to have VERY low testosterone. We were doing injections every three weeks up until August 1 when this all started. He was doing better and after the nec/fac, his doctor took him off all of the testosterone. This has obviously been a physically difficult time but the last blood test a week ago revealed that his testosterone was now in very dangerously low levels. With the pain meds gone, I now can see the effects of low T on a man and it's heartbreaking. Depression. Lack of initiative. Exhaustion. Weight gain. But the doc wasn't willing to prescribe anything until he'd done a prostate exam.

Do not think for a minute that I didn't run with this. Because I did. :o) After years of heading off to an annual exam and hearing, "Smile big!" for the mammogram and all sorts of lewd remarks about the exam table and stirrups, karma came back to bite him square on the behind. And I had fun with it. Ali and I left the exam room after the initial checkup and on the way out the door, I called to Dr. Kuzma, "Be gentle with him. And give him a 15 second cuddle when you're done." Karma. They both blushed.

So, the plethora of meds are gone, now it's only insulin, diuretic, potassium, and the testosterone cream. I marvel at how each piece has fallen in place and it only happened because we followed every instruction to the letter and looked to God for everything. We have lived in such a state of panic and urgency for so long that we now both agree on one thing: Boring is GOOD.

Sequestration, and the assorted and assundry bullshit that goes with it

The country has been running without a budget for five years now.  That fact is illegal in itself.  It's a violation of the Constitution and the law of the land.  So say government spending is to go up 15% over last year.  What sequester means is that instead of the government's budget going up 15% this year, spending is only going to go up 12%.  Sequester is going to cost His Holiness 3%.  Last year we spent 10% more than we did the year before.  So, in reality, sequester means we are only going to spend 2% more this year than last year.  This in no way is budget cuts.  This is no way the drastic doomsday scenario being touted by the White House and the Senate (Dems led by the brain dead Harry Reid).  Government spending is STILL going to go up 2.45% over last year's spending amount.  There is NO cutting in spending going on.  This is smoke and mirrors and lies.  When he posed with the cops and the firefighters and the first responders to tell his bullshit and blame the Republicans, none of those guys are going to lose their jobs.  ZERO.  Why?  First responders and firefighters and policemen are paid by municipalities and county budgets, otherwise known as local spending, not federal spending.  The teachers in West Virginia that were supposedly already losing their jobs due to sequestration were already being transferred to different schools.  So, TECHNICALLY, if you want to split pubic hairs over this, those teachers are no longer going to be working at the schools they're being transferred from.  That isn't because of the federal government.  That's because of reallocation by their school districts. 

As for ICE and the crap they pulled this last weekend, releasing approximately 3,500 criminal illegal aliens into the communities for things such as rape, murder, robbery, home invasion and general assiness, according to Jan the Man, these weren't the REALLY bad, bad guys.  How stupid does that dyke think we are as to believe that sequestration has things so dire that illegal alien criminals have to be dumped on the streets because we couldn't afford to keep them?  All they accomplished was running up overtime against ICE and didn't deport a single one.  But they did make them sign a paper and promise to come back for deportation hearings.  And aren't we relieved to know that these criminal illegals will be honest enough to do that?  All His Holiness achieved by allowing them to be released was to guarantee that somewhere in this country, an innocent legal American citizen is going to be raped, robbed, murdered, or have their home broken into in a home invasion by AN ILLEGAL ALIEN LIFELONG CRIMINAL.

In answer to Diane Feinstein, THAT is why we need assault weapons with 30 round magazines because Mike doesn't see as good as he used to or shoot as straight as he used to and God forbid one would get away after kicking in our front door because Jan the Man cut loose 3,500 criminal illegal aliens to scare us with sequestration.  Not only that, they spent more on overtime than they saved getting rid of them. 

January 1, Obama got his $650B in new taxes, yet he refused to negotiate in good faith spending cuts that he agreed to get that "increased revenue", that "fair share", that "punishment for success".  So now His Holiness refuses to do anything about sequestration unless he gets MORE tax increases.  He wants to protect the middle class?  He wants to make the middle class go the way of the dodo bird and other extinct animals.

So say what you will about Republicans, at least they held tight and said, "Oh, hell no, you don't get tax increases in the middle of this mess.  And as John Boehner said to the Senate, they have already passed two appropriations bills with large spending cuts and NO tax increases.  But Harry Reid refuses to allow them to be read on the Senate floor, prompting Mr. Boehner to say, "Get off your asses and do your job (and I quote him word for word)."  I think Harry and the boys need to get their heads out of their asses and realize that the American people, thanks to Bob Woodward and Fox News and Drudge and Breitbart have shined the light on the schemes of the little cockroaches currently infesting 1600 Pennsylvania and the Senate. 

Don't get me wrong, Republicans need to share plenty of blame on this, too, but at least they're attempting to do SOMETHING, Keystone Coppish as it may be, it's better than going home for the weekend to watch this happen and then listen to all the idiots on the big three with their political talk shows trying to paint His Holiness in a courageous light.  He has no great plan.  He has no brilliant scheme.  The guy has NO idea what he's doing.  He thinks he can just campaign his way through the next four years, selling access to himself in the White House for $500,000 per person to have a "meet and greet" and tell him what you think the government should give YOU.

You suppose if we put the Constitution on a teleprompter that the jackass (that is HIS party's emblem) would read it?  That is, after all, the only way he can give a speech.