Joyce's KP Adventure mikepasini.com headlines
Surgery Round Three
10 September 2021
I didn't change the wound dressing this morning since it wouldn't have been on very long. Joyce did get up at 5:30 to go through the home pre-surgery routine of using the disinfectant. She had the energy drink at 7.
Kaiser Hospital. You can't go in so the status display of current operations has been moved to the entrance.
At 8:30, we drove through the morning traffic to the hospital where nobody but us was in the passenger loading zone. I made sure her iPhone was connected to the Kaiser Guest network and then walked her into the lobby, as far as I could go.
Yesterday Dr. Tong called to brief her on today's procedure. A nice touch.
Arrival. Confirmed she's on the list, Joyce puts her ID away and continues on to Admitting.
When Joyce asked Dr. Tong how long she might have to stay in the hospital, she said about three weeks. So we really aren't sure if it will be until next Wednesday or the following Tuesday or when. She does have possible follow-up surgeries scheduled for Sept. 14 and 21.
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DR. TONG CALLED just now (2:20 p.m.) as Joyce went into recovery. She said she got as much done today as she had hoped, removing a lot of the yellow slough but not all of it. She'll have to go back in next week on Tuesday.
She did have an orthopedic surgeon assist to make sure she didn't overcut and injure the nerve. The nerve is fine, she said.
She sent some cultures to the lab and will schedule Joyce for a CT scan to look for any infection deeper in the tissue that was weakened from the radiation seven years ago.
Meanwhile they have put an epidural in for pain management and will keep the wound open to look at it every day. Only when all the tissue is pink and healthy will they close it with a Wound VAC.
It will be a while before I'm able to talk to Joyce.