3 February 2022
Julie the Physicial Therapist came for the first time yesterday. She'll be back Friday and twice a week for a few weeks.
Joyce told her she was having back pain at an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10. So Julie suggested some stretching exercises that she did with Joyce. And they helped.
Julie had seen photos of the wound and thought there was some noticeable improvement over six months.
She also observed Joyce doing Sean's workout and had a couple more upper body strength exercises to add. So it was a very productive session.
This morning we had a routine surgery screening with a nurse practitioner who had just arrived from Albany, N.Y. He was very glad to escape the winters, particularly the current storm.
I did ask him if he knew what the Feb. 11 surgery was. A draining and close, he said. But he didn't really know. He was reading a catalog description.
I think the "close" simply means the surgeon will open the wound, debride it and then "close" it. In other words, not leave it open.
I don't think there's any chance of actually doing a skin graft and permanently closing the wound. I'm sticking with my understanding that cultures will be taken to come up with an antibiotic cocktail to make the tissue as receptive as possible to the Integra, which would be placed on a second visit to the surgery later this month.
And I'm guessing two weeks later, given the normal course of antibiotics she's had in the past.
So don't hold your breath. We're just getting started.