13 June 2021
If we're writing less frequently about this long haul it's because it has become routine. One day is much like the next, one week much the same as the previous one. Progress has been slow but steady.
In a little while, an hour or so after she takes a Tylenol, I'll do the morning dressing change, pulling off the two big Mediplex pads with the abdominal pad stuck to them, folding it in half and dropping it into a brown shopping bag.
Then I'll carefully lift out the fluffy gauze that had been soaked in Vashe before changing into clean gloves.
I'll wipe her skin with a chemical meant to condition it for the pad adhesive and then fill the wound with fluffy gauze soaked in Dakin's Solution, crossing back and forth across the wound so the gauze doesn't shift during the day.
Progress has been slow but steady.
I'll lay an 8x10 abdominal pad over that, folded to 4x10 with the fold to the inside and then put the lower Mediplex pad on, aligned to the top of her inside thigh, before putting the upper one on.
The last thing I do is smooth the edges of the Mediplex pads on her skin to make sure they are making good contact. I save the clean gloves to remove the dressing later.
In the evening, it's the same routine. She takes a Tylenol after dinner and an hour so later, I do the dressing change, this time soaking the gauze in Vashe.
On the days that a nurse comes, the nurse does the dressing change after taking vitals but I attend to discuss the situation and answer any questions.
On the afternoons Joyce has a debridement, I do a special dressing change. Joyce takes a Tylenol-with-Codeine pill and then, an hour before the appointment, I remove the morning dressing and cover every inch of the open wound with a 2.5 percent Lidocaine cream applied with a long Q-Tip.
Then I cover the wound with gauze and put a shield of drape over the gauze. The gauze and drape form a temporary protection for the wound. In an hour, after all, it will be tossed out for the debridement, after which, she'll get a new dressing, the gauze soaked in Vashe.
And so it goes, day after day.
Dr. Tong has Joyce's CT scan. The technician's report didn't say anything but the obvious. The real value of the scan is what it tells Dr. Tong about the underlying tissue, which she can't see during a debridement.
That information will inform her planned surgical intervention in August to help speed tissue growth in the wound.
That's also when the Wound VAC may make a second appearance, at least in the hospital.
But all that remains to be seen. Now, it's time for the morning dressing change again.