I'm taking this leg on vacation eventually - destination undecided

And the list just gets longer folks.... wound appointments,weekly debridements, wound vacs, pressure wraps,unna boots, infections-cellulitis, now MRSA, one hospitalization, home nursing care, and my new little friend a picc line- ( peripherally inserted central catheter ) daily IV's thru Aug 5. Ridiculous doesn't even cover it all because of  a couple of stinking blisters- no lie! 


But enough of that seriously people,  all I can think about lately is where I'm going to go when this is all over, when the leg is healed and the infection is gone.When I say good riddance to the last doctor or nurse and get my boring life back for good.


The other day my husband and I were sitting in the doctors office looking at a magazine and I couldn't help but be drawn to some beautiful articles of tropical beaches and exotic places. Heck I love the water as long as it isn't sterile saline!
Crap!


I REALLY NEED A VACATION. 


I have cousins and other living relatives in Ireland that I have yet to meet in person, so maybe when my whole leg drama comes to a close we should hop over the pond so to speak and go visit my Irish family from my paternal grandmothers side in Cork. Either way this whole episode has taken hold of my life and my life has pretty revolves around my treatments and all that's necessary to heal this wound and now deal with this infection that they found last week.


We've had to cancel one vacation at some expense, and our yearly beach excursion with the family had to be skipped this year since I am not able to be near sand or able to swim.


There are so many choices here in the United States after all there's so much of it I still haven't seen, sure I've been to many of the Eastern United States and Hawaii, California but that's about it. Maybe we should pick a place here at home. I could be persuaded for instance to eat my way thru New Orleans, listen to some jazz, have a few cocktails with the natives in some smokey bar or nightclub.Or do we do what we had planned to do this summer and never got to do, visit the place of my paternal grandfathers birth- Prince Edward Island, Canada I've heard it's beautiful there. Have I mentioned how much I love to eat muscles, some of the best muscles come from PEI, yum!


I am really open to suggestion about what to do and where to travel, and I'm not to worried about expenses at this point. One- I have really good insurance. Two - When I was in the hospital this week, my husband bought a truck. So I think we can probably afford a decent vacation don't you? 


Now I see visitors from all over the country and over the world visiting this blog. I'd really love some suggestions on where you think I should go, I just know you've been somewhere great and want to tell me about it! 


Don't be shy, leave a comment I am open to suggestions.

my leg wound, a cow and a penis?

My head is spinning, yet another week has past and my leg trauma drama read here continues with another therapy. The wound vac      (negative pressure wound therapy) is gone for now and am now being treated with what they call an unna boot. The wound vac as it happens was damaging the skin around my wound so they decided to give me a break hopefully for good.*fingers crossed*

This new thing the unna boot is a wet gauze bandage soaked in zinc ointment which will heal my wound and help treat my damaged skin surrounding it. Then on top of that they wrap this other type of dry ace type bandage- tightly. Its wrapped from the arch of my foot to just below my knee, my legs feeling a bit claustrophobic- can that happen?

Truthfully, it's rather like wearing wet underwear and putting dry pants on top YUCKY! This stays on 24/7 like the dumb vac. I have to put an knee high stocking so my leg doesn't get plastered to the sheet at night and keep my leg up for hours on end during the day so it doesn't swell. This whole affair which started as a simple bruise and a few blisters is just getting more and more bizarre every week.

If I could run out to the mailbox every day to see if my insurance pre-authorization is in the box, believe me I would. Tomorrow, I think I'm gonna pre-schedule an anointing with my parish priest- some priest will do it some won't, we'll see about my new pastor. I thinking positively that the ok for the skin graft will go thru and I'll be good to go on all fronts.  That might happen in three weeks, prayers please!

I wish to heaven I was an accomplished humor writer because I was doing a bit of research on the type of skin graft he's planning to use (Apligraf),  I read that the skin is made from the cells from infant foreskin (that would be from a penis for those of you who live in a cave and are not informed on what foreskin is) and bovine collagen; no lie. Like skin from my ass wouldn't have been funny enough! This is just to funny and will have to wait for another post.

can you smell me now?

my new high tech shower

Being a patient of home heath care nursing is kinda like being in jail. No vacations, no swimming, no beach, you get the idea! Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that the wound care nurses are highly skilled and will ultimately get my leg healed quicker than if I just went to the doctor every Monday.They are the nicest ladies too! They came on Thursday for paperwork and Friday to set up my wound vac (Negative Pressure Wound Therapy). They will come to my house regularly on Monday and Wednesday's and Fridays until my doctor discontinues the treatment.

After doing all the medical necessities they attach this foam thingie that placed over my wound (it's literally a vacuum seal over the wound). There's a tube that carries beads of moisture from my leg  to the actual pump/vacuum that I have to wear over my shoulder or around my waist in a carry case. The purpose is to keep the wound dry so it grows healthy tissue and heals faster. I have to wear it 24/7.

Little did I know when my doctor ordered this therapy which he added to the traditional weekly therapy that I cannot take a shower except on Monday's. Can you smell me now? Every Monday after my doctor's appointment when he removes the vac to check my leg I can come home and shower, then the nurses  come and put it back on :(

Last night I was at my friend Becky's house with some other girl friends. We had a wonderful dinner pool side in the gazebo. Lovely cool salads, good wine, spirited conversation with good friends. Anyway we got to talking about my leg, being that they're my friends they are concerned about my health. And being that they're my friends their were of course a few giggles about the whole topic of how fragrant I might be by the end of the week since I can't shower until Monday. Sponge baths are not the type of bathing that really does it for me; but I guess I'll have to make the sacrifice to get this thing healed. So the wine was flowing and we got to talking about the different names that one might call a 'sponge bath'. A few possibilities that were mentioned were  a 'bird bath' and a 'whores bath'.

Do you have a funny name for 'sponge bath' that you want to share? Believe me I could use a laugh.....

my doctor- my word!

I went to the wound doctor for my second treatment today. I really like this guy; he's pretty funny and he uses 'food words' as examples to get his messages across.

It got me to thinking maybe his father was a butcher or maybe he owned a  food market.  This is why- because he says the funniest things; the little instrument that he uses to clean my wound with is like a mini  'melon baller.' The ointment that I have to put on my wound every day is supposed to 'marinate' my wound. And when I asked him today what parts of the wound looked the healthiest he replied " I want this wound to look like a juicy red piece of meat."  I know I know it's gross right?

I made wonder what his mother did for a living when he ordered NPWT for me today, that stands for (negative pressure wound therapy) better known as 'wound vacuuming'; I don't know maybe she was a housekeeper, ya think?

my leg trauma drama

If I could  have anticipated that my week at the beach and the fall that I took when we vacationed there read here in my post-  WE DUCKED DOWN TO THE BEACH  would have turned into such a long and drawn out nightmare then I might have stayed home. I've explored the internet and some natural and home remedies but to no avail  the legs wound is still unhealed as I wrote in my post- MY LEGS A PAIN IN THE ASS.  I have gotten the best care possible from my regular doctor; but it's clear it was time to explore new options.

So my doctor sent me off to the Wound Care Center yesterday and met my new doctor. He will be the guy who will tend to my wound for what will be roughly the next 16 weeks. Yup you read it right 16 weeks, my summer is ruined no beach no swimming...sucks right? I have to go see him every week on Monday afternoons for a debridement (he scrapes) the wound with a tool to clean off the tissue so it will heal from the inside out. Apparently the trauma from the fall was so deep that the wound formed down as deep that the muscle is exposed in places, yuck. If it doesn't heal from the course of treatment he's set forth, I'll have to have a skin graft done. Crap! 

Every day I have to put special cream on it, bandage it in a sterile bandage then wrap my leg from below the knee to my ankle in an ace bandage. For the entire day every day for the whole course of the treatment I have to wear that darn ace bandage except while sleeping of course. Four time daily I have to raise my leg for 1/2 hour above my head and lay flat on my back and rest the leg. I'm never gonna get anything done! Then he told me, actually it was more like a warning. If I saw any sign of infection, redness or if the cellulitis returned I was to go straight to the hospital period. That I have taken enough oral antibiotics that I was going on an IV in the hospital no negotiation no questions asked!

With all seriousness I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have medical insurance! I am so grateful that I am covered by a good policy (medical, hospital, drug coverage). I can't imagine what people do without it.I can only imagine that this treatment will be a costly one. Even the twenty percent that I'll end up paying will probably be a good amount. I really liked the doctor I should say and I'm so grateful for this man, the doctor who has taken on my case. He was in fact quite knowledgeable and I'm confident  in his abilities.

Let's pray all goes well.