18 March 2022
Dr. Tong just called to brief me on today's surgery. Joyce tolerated it well and will be released tomorrow.
She thought the best thing to do now is to be patient, continuing with the oxygen therapy beyond the 20 approved sessions (at $2,500 each) and coming back to the hospital for debridements when the yellow slough reappears.
That's the plan for the next few weeks.
Joyce isn't keen on doing the oxygen therapy. She doesn't like sitting in the chamber, which is pretty cold and with about double the normal air pressure, for an hour and a half with 10 minutes to get to pressure and 10 minutes to decompress.
She's been watching a television series and movies to distract herself.
Dr. Tong said the painful part of the muscle is the active part. It was about 0.5 to 1.0 and was 3.0 now. Oh, a 300 percent improvement, I joked. She laughed, you could look at it like that but it should be at 100, not 3.
She took a culture to see if any more antibiotics are needed but told me Joyce should finish the ones she's been taking.
Having the Wound VAC instead of wet-to-dry dressings has made a big difference, too. The wound was in better shape this time around than last time.
So she was encouraged and happy about today's surgery. But she doesn't want to rush into the Integra. It's too soon.
We have to be patient and give the oxygen and surgery combination a chance to do its work.
We joked about what I was making for dinner again. I had told Joyce to tell her it was going to be mussels. She remembered oysters. But it turns out I have some turkey breast defrosting for turkey saltimbocca.
Why suffer?