ellen_datlow (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ellen_datlow) wrote2009-02-09 05:26 pm
ellen_datlow) wrote2009-02-09 05:26 pm
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A trip to the doctor
Appointment at noon with my internist. Ellie came with me.
My doc and I talked, he said I needed to see a surgeon (from what I told him) and he set me up with his upstairs office neighbor about half an hour later. Very cool guy from Montreal. He listened to the story, unwrapped it and although I said I did NOT want to see it I peeked and it wasn't sooo bad. Clean, no infection any more--pink and as Ellie and I agreed, looks exactly like a zombie took a bite out of my leg before the bad stuff sets in.
Options: First was the surgical one--(he IS a surgeon after all)--skin graft--would need a decent bit of skin from my outer thigh --that would hurt. Wound would not. It would be done out patient but have to be checked regularly and could reject the graft. Would take awhile to heal. And although it's minor surgery it is surgery
Second--some kind of surgical pump that would have to be attached to my leg and which I would have to lug around with me for weeks--not so good
So I'd pretty much decided on the graft and he wrapped me and then he said..there is one other option: the unaboot, a pressure bandage impregnated withe meds that promotes healing and needs to be changed once a week. There's the possibility that the wound will stop healing at a certain point over the next few weeks but even if that's the case, the wound would be substantially smaller, hence any skin graft would be similarly smaller. I can live with that.
So that's what I got--he wrapped gauze around it that he says will fall apart and that I need to replace with an ace bandage (I bought some) and I'll be back to see him Thursday afternoon for a look as to how it's doing.
Slight update 7:15
One of the nurses on Mary Ward C just called me from London to see how I'm doing. I cannot express how moved I am by this. I asked her to give everyone on the ward an update on how my leg is.
My doc and I talked, he said I needed to see a surgeon (from what I told him) and he set me up with his upstairs office neighbor about half an hour later. Very cool guy from Montreal. He listened to the story, unwrapped it and although I said I did NOT want to see it I peeked and it wasn't sooo bad. Clean, no infection any more--pink and as Ellie and I agreed, looks exactly like a zombie took a bite out of my leg before the bad stuff sets in.
Options: First was the surgical one--(he IS a surgeon after all)--skin graft--would need a decent bit of skin from my outer thigh --that would hurt. Wound would not. It would be done out patient but have to be checked regularly and could reject the graft. Would take awhile to heal. And although it's minor surgery it is surgery
Second--some kind of surgical pump that would have to be attached to my leg and which I would have to lug around with me for weeks--not so good
So I'd pretty much decided on the graft and he wrapped me and then he said..there is one other option: the unaboot, a pressure bandage impregnated withe meds that promotes healing and needs to be changed once a week. There's the possibility that the wound will stop healing at a certain point over the next few weeks but even if that's the case, the wound would be substantially smaller, hence any skin graft would be similarly smaller. I can live with that.
So that's what I got--he wrapped gauze around it that he says will fall apart and that I need to replace with an ace bandage (I bought some) and I'll be back to see him Thursday afternoon for a look as to how it's doing.
Slight update 7:15
One of the nurses on Mary Ward C just called me from London to see how I'm doing. I cannot express how moved I am by this. I asked her to give everyone on the ward an update on how my leg is.
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