Joyce's KP Adventure mikepasini.com headlines
Meeting Dr. Tong
29 July 2020
We went to the Wound Care Clinic earlier this week where the RN cleaned Joyce's wound area, both the radiated skin (which covers most of her back thigh) and the abscess (image below). The nurse said the abscess is still infected and no healing will occur until all the dead skin is removed (yellow in the Infection image below). And that is done, in part, by packing the abscess with damp gauze, letting it sit 12 hours and removing it along with any dead skin it has absorbed.
We've been doing that since seeing her original surgeon Dr. Fang. About a week. The abscess is large enough that about a foot of two-inch wide gauze is required to pack it.
Today Joyce had a video conference with Dr. Winnie Tong, another surgeon, who reviewed her recent CT scan and said the abscess was so large it would require surgery to clean out before it can heal. And it may require multiple surgeries to address.
So the current plan is to continue with the daily packings, go to the Wound Care Clinic next week for more thorough cleanings to the whole area and schedule surgery.
It isn't an emergency, Dr. Tong said, but needs to happen soon. Current protocol is to have a Covid-19 test four days prior to admittance to the hospital. She wants an in-person visit before surgery to examine the wound so there are no surprises on the day of surgery. And after surgery Joyce will be in the hospital at least a couple of days for pain management.
Then we see what happens. She may require a sponge in the wound, which would require in-home nursing three times a week, or just to return to the packing routine. It all depends on what happens during surgery and if the abscess starts to heal. It may even require an out-of-network program Tong mentioned vaguely.
But it's going to take a while to get any improvement. Tong said to expect it to take a few months.
(NB: If you're reading this on your phone, turn it 90 degrees into landscape orientation to see the image.)
