My big trip on Friday -- back to the surgeon's office- was a disaster from the minute I woke up. Even before maybe
First, I had missed calls from Missouri numbers, but no messages. So I called to confirm my appointment with Dr Brandt only to be told I did not have one. Funny, I had a card that said I do--upon further reflection, it said the appointment was with the oncologist. I assumed though that Dr Brandt would show up and off we went--mom, Aunt Jana and I. We got stuck in traffic on the bridge and were late.
The oncologist had no idea why I was there either. She was done with me, other than to tell me all the tissue came back clear. That was the expected response but still good to hear. After looking at the mess we have here, she was afraid to take my drains out without Dr Brandt's involvement, so she called him to come look. Of course, he was not in town. She arranged for me to see his nurse and one of his partners who had helped with surgery and off we went to see them.
Kinda. The doc we expected to see was in surgery. They found yet another partner, who had not yet been involved but knew all about me, and she came to check things out. I really liked her. She was concerned about what she saw, but not having seen it before, could not really judge whether it was holding its own or getting worse. She tracked down Dr Franco, who is a resident I think, and who was my nemesis the whole week in the hospital, because he had at least seen it before.
He said it was about the same, and just what he expected to see. Lots of dead stuff, but I do not think there was any that they did not expect to be dead. We talked about what might happen, but of course, it is all up to Dr Brandt, who was not there and I cannot see until next Friday. One doc thought the option might be to remove the dying tissue, and stretch the skin down to close the opening--thus not requiring a skin graft at all. Evidently that is not a huge surgery. The trick is to balance the time needed to allow all that is going to die to go ahead and do it against the threat of major infection for walking around with no skin over several inches of my body. I cant wait to actually see Dr Brandt because he makes all the decisions. Dr Franco thinks it will probably be a couple of weeks. I would rather it be sooner than later, I want to get this show on the road. I did get three of my drains out, which makes a world of difference in how I feel. Now to get rid of this last one--hopefully this week.
They changed the ointment I am using too. Now I am using silvadine cream, which helps deal with the necrotic tissue and is a really good protectant against infection. It however produces very nasty results. When I got up today, it looked like the scene of a crime in these bandages and scared me to death. It did not concern me as much after we cleaned it up, but they have me kind of paranoid about infection. And it kind of hurts.
I guess this is all par for the course. Better suck it up and get used to it.
First, I had missed calls from Missouri numbers, but no messages. So I called to confirm my appointment with Dr Brandt only to be told I did not have one. Funny, I had a card that said I do--upon further reflection, it said the appointment was with the oncologist. I assumed though that Dr Brandt would show up and off we went--mom, Aunt Jana and I. We got stuck in traffic on the bridge and were late.
The oncologist had no idea why I was there either. She was done with me, other than to tell me all the tissue came back clear. That was the expected response but still good to hear. After looking at the mess we have here, she was afraid to take my drains out without Dr Brandt's involvement, so she called him to come look. Of course, he was not in town. She arranged for me to see his nurse and one of his partners who had helped with surgery and off we went to see them.
Kinda. The doc we expected to see was in surgery. They found yet another partner, who had not yet been involved but knew all about me, and she came to check things out. I really liked her. She was concerned about what she saw, but not having seen it before, could not really judge whether it was holding its own or getting worse. She tracked down Dr Franco, who is a resident I think, and who was my nemesis the whole week in the hospital, because he had at least seen it before.
He said it was about the same, and just what he expected to see. Lots of dead stuff, but I do not think there was any that they did not expect to be dead. We talked about what might happen, but of course, it is all up to Dr Brandt, who was not there and I cannot see until next Friday. One doc thought the option might be to remove the dying tissue, and stretch the skin down to close the opening--thus not requiring a skin graft at all. Evidently that is not a huge surgery. The trick is to balance the time needed to allow all that is going to die to go ahead and do it against the threat of major infection for walking around with no skin over several inches of my body. I cant wait to actually see Dr Brandt because he makes all the decisions. Dr Franco thinks it will probably be a couple of weeks. I would rather it be sooner than later, I want to get this show on the road. I did get three of my drains out, which makes a world of difference in how I feel. Now to get rid of this last one--hopefully this week.
They changed the ointment I am using too. Now I am using silvadine cream, which helps deal with the necrotic tissue and is a really good protectant against infection. It however produces very nasty results. When I got up today, it looked like the scene of a crime in these bandages and scared me to death. It did not concern me as much after we cleaned it up, but they have me kind of paranoid about infection. And it kind of hurts.
I guess this is all par for the course. Better suck it up and get used to it.
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2 comments:
Good Grief----oh my------take care.
Carol
I sure hope you start feeling better, this sounds very painful!
Tammy Kelly
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