4 April 2022
Donna the RN came at nine this morning after Joyce had taken a gram of Tylenol to manage the pain of the dressing change. It didn't help.
It took over half a hour to peel the hospital dressing off the wound with Joyce screaming every tug of the way. It was unnerving for all of us.
In fact it was so bad that, in the middle of it, I emailed Dr. Tong to ask if there was something else that could be prescribed for the pain. The problem is she can't take Oxycodone for two weeks after the course of Zylox. That's two Wednesday's from now (and four debridements).
The dressing change took an hour and a half. To pass the time, I called Apria to reorder supplies. We're down to our last canister.
Joyce dressed quickly after Donna left because that's when we should have been leaving for St. Francis.
As we dashed down to the car to make the 11 o'clock appointment, Alyssa the Physician's Assistant called to respond to my email. Dr. Tong had consulted with Dr. Aguilar, the infectious diseases expert prescribing her antibiotic treatments based on the cultures from her surgeries. He suggested Norco, a combination of hydrocodone with 325mg of Tylenol. It should be ready for pickup after our hyperbaric session, she said.
I drove down Market and up Franklin and down Bush, dropping Joyce off at hospital at precisely 10:58 before swinging around the block again to Reef Parking. Miraculously right on time again.
This was Joyce's 20th hyperbaric session. Every 20 sessions ends with a consultation with the doctor so Dr. Mallon met with us during her therapy.
I showed him photos of the wound and we discussed pain medications. He chatted with Joyce on a handset to the chamber. She's approved for 20 more sessions. He thinks we'll see more progress during this 20 session stint but she's a candidate for 60 sessions based on the size of her wound. After that, patients have to take a break from the therapy.
Meanwhile, he thought it made excellent sense to continue with both the hyperbaric sessions and surgical debridement as necessary.
We did pick up the Norco at French Hospital's pharmacy (which is not quite the zoo as the main Geary pharmacy) on the way home. And Joyce took one right away.
Then she waited for over half an hour on hold with Apria to make sure they knew how to bill her without using a credit card. So that's worked out, too.