Monday I saw my doctor who was delighted with my progress. How amazing - every other time I went to see him I was hospitalized. The day started with this great news and hopes that I would be able to have a skin graft on 9/10.
Despite plans for the visiting nurse to put on my acti-vac dressing in the evening, unexpectedly a nurse appeared in the afternoon. As soon as she let me know she had "some" experience with this type of dressing I should have sent her away. More proof that my brain is not firing on all cylinders. She dressed my 3 wounds incorrectly. After an hour or so the acti-vac wouldn't work because of a leak in the dressing. Why would the agency send a nurse not properly trained to do this dressing? Is common sense totally removed from healthcare in the US? The night nurse, Linda, who has lots of experience with these dressings had to redo the whole thing. While I'd love to let you know how awful this was because deep wounds are not happy with being messed with 3 times in one day, I'll skip the details.
The pain has been grim and last night I had a temp of 100 degrees - down to 98.8 this morning. We have a call in to the doc and are impatiently waiting to hear what he has to say. Ira and I suspect an infection and we hope his first line of defense will be an antibiotic. I don't want anyone to remove this dressing until it's required. Too much messing around with it leaves me in additional pain and I'm fearful it exposes me to more infections. So we'll see what happens.
Otherwise I continue to receive lots of support, cards and food from friends and acquaintances. The caring shown by people who barely know me and those who know me well is changing me. Even at the ripe age of 70 I grasp the reality that I can grow emotionally as well as intellectually.
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