’20 August

I wonder if I’ve just experienced a joyous near-total turn-around?  The second opinion guy (Dr Ralph Massey recommended by Brigitte and Knut) had a different wound care routine entirely involving a different method to remove the old dressings, a different way to clean the wounds, and a different medication. 

Windy was over, the home care nurse was here, and the three of us meticulously followed the new routine.  Oh my GOODNESS the treatment Didn’t Sting!  How can it be?!  Last night I still hurt but not like before when every night I considered checking myself into the hospital, and this morning, same thing, it hurts but So Much Better I can NOT complain. It seems the hornets and the scorpions that have been plaguing me for weeks have Moved On!

On top of which the second opinion guy said ‘skin graft? No, you don’t need a skin graft.  You’re not going to be a butt model, right, so why have a surgery you don’t need.’  Don’t we love it when doctors tell us what we want to hear!

I went back to the first guy yesterday too, who did the debridement, and he said ‘you have two choices, do another debridement and then do a skin graft or do a skin graft now and it probably won’t all take so you’ll need another one’.  I say No Thank You to Both your stinking choices.

Another reason for thumbs down on the first guy, I’ve had two home care nurses since this started and it turns out both of them asked this first doctor, through their agency, if they could change the treatment plan and both times the doctor replied NO, just NO.

I’ve still got 2-3 months of this new treatment plan in my future. If all goes well I’ll be steadily day by day feeling less pain as the wounds grow skin. I don’t know when I’ll be able to sit down. To my little sister Windy The Nurse goes grateful PRAISE for all she has done to get me through this, through the hornets and the scorpions, through my moans and groans and tears. I’m better now!

I don’t know how to thank everyone who has helped me, I’m mute with gratitude. I don’t know if I’ll live long enough to extend to others all the help and love and companionship that has been extended to me.

Since the debridement on Tuesday I’ve had the dressings changed four times, Wed-Thur-Fri-Sat, and each time no matter how I’ve mixed and matched the pain meds, for Four Hours I can hardly breathe. Huhhh So Bad. Wow, I can Not Wait for this to be over! I ask the nurse every day, will it be better tomorrow? And he replies, soon, I promise it will be better soon. Soon? When is SOON?! I’ll be clapping my hands and dancing a jig when I’m ok in two hours. I can hold my breath for two hours.

Still! These flowers are still dressing up my entry way from May 10. I know the plant is real because it arrived for Mother’s Day from Cynthia with many fewer blooms. Maybe someone sneaks into my house and changes it out?

And I might get a persimmon or two, it could happen!

Right this second at 9am on Thursday I’m standing at the kitchen counter writing this in relative comfort. Still, I can’t sit down.

The surgeon and the anesthetist said everything went great on Tuesday although both of them made me feel they were talking about themselves, you know the type. Not a whiff of warm and fuzzy between them. I slept well Tuesday night but I think the anesthesia was still in force.

Yesterday was on and off up and down on the comfort scale and getting the wounds redressed for the first time was a real Sting Fest that didn’t subside for many hours. But then I did mostly sleep at night so ok, I wonder what today will bring!

Yesterday I walked the few blocks back and forth to various medical appointments in preparation for the debridement (de-BREEd-ment), a same-day surgery under general anesthesia to remove the dead skin around the worst of the burns that I’ll be having on Tuesday. I needed all those pre-op tests and Another covid. All good, thumbs up, ready to roll.

It’s only Friday though, the surgery is on Tuesday, so I’m living in hope that I’ll feel better every day, a hope that has yet to be achieved. Don’t burn your butt…if you do you can’t sit down!

I had my first appointment with the skin care specialist (a plastic surgeon recommended by my GP).

He says I have to have a debridement (removal of dead skin), the sooner the better, so I’m doing a pre-op tomorrow, Wednesday, including another covid test.  The surgery will be on the 18^th at the Saint John’s Surgery Center and takes one hour, four hours total at the Surgery Center with early arrival and post-general-anesthesia wait time. 

Then 3-4 weeks later he wants to do skin grafts which is especially painful and takes especially long to heal.  He was really selling it(?) but his particular expertise is in plastic surgery.

I’ll go ahead and get the debridement done because the wound care nurse says it has to happen as does Windy and even the internet agrees, and then I’ll get a second opinion on the skin grafts just in case there are alternatives.

So I’ll probably keep getting a very little better until Tuesday the 18^th when I’ll get worse again for a week, then some better for 3-4 weeks and then Really worse for a couple months after the skin graft. It’s OK though, I’m resigned, one day at a time and eventually it will all be over!

All day and all night long I’m just trying to get comfortable. Turning, twisting, building little barriers wedges and whatnot. There must be a better way and I’m going to have to learn about it! Drugs are nice but it’s not general anesthesia.

So so SO much thanks to everyone who has helped me. What a blessing. And then there’s this.

I’d say I’m about the same, very much looking forward to being better! My main condition is unrelenting discomfort, not being able to situate myself comfortably. At any given moment it’s not so bad but over time, man-oh-man it does get TEDIOUS. My face looks yellow.