SHIP'S LOG:
So glad you all made past Friday the 13th.
I had a little accident taking a shower on Thursday, not a slip and
fall but a drip and leak. To take a shower without wetting the wrapping,
I wrap my cast.splint in a garbage bag and then seal it with plastic
packing tape, once around the top edge adhering it to the skin of my leg
and once below that just as precaution.It sound pretty good and you
would think "fool proof," but Thursday I managed somehow to leave an
entry way for the way.
After the shower, having removed the bag, I was drying off when I
noticed that I was leaving maroon marks on the formerly white bath mats I
got from my sister for my bathroom. Feeling along the bottom of the
wrappings, I could tell that they were damp and that what I was trailing
around was dried blood just recently liquefied by the water from the
shower. One of my sisters had a nasty infection experience from getting
a dressing on a surgical wound wet, so I contacted the doctor's office
and, even though I have an appointment on Tuesday next, the instructed
me to come up tho their clinic post hast.
I was able to impose upon a friend to rive me up and got seen right
away. The surgeon who did the cutting was, "surprise,"in surgery but his
PA was there and he took off the dressing. Yes, no wonder I was leaving
a bloody trail. There were four incisions on one ankle: 1.) one running
from the ball of the foot along the inner edge of the ankle all the way
to the pad under the ankle; 2.) one inscribing the bottom of the heel;
3.) one under the outer ankle bone; 4.) and the last mid-way up th e
inside of the calf which either was the sight of tendon harvest or
where a screw was set to hold the tendons in place. Both staples and
stitches were use and it is safe to say that it looked as though I had
been tap-dancing on a running chainsaw.
The good news, according to the PA was that there was no sign of any
type of infection whatsoever and everything was looking as it should,
everything in its proper place. The PA cleaned the foot, painted it with
Bedadine, put a special tape loaded with antibiotics over each of the
incisions and re-wrapped it. Rather than another splint/cast, I was
given a boot to wear and sent on my merry way, to appear Tuesday next
for the doctor to do a full inspection and assessment. If all goes well,
I should start physical therapy so after.
It is annoying clomping around the "Hermitage" in a boot and a walker though it is undoubtedly much better than being on a boat. How did they do it with peg legs? I am hoping that I will be able to ditch the walker but then that surely means PT has begun and no matter what the injury, that is never fun.
