21 April 2022
We're not sure what's going on with our in-home LVN, the one who does the dressing changes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Vic has been sick, Kristine was filling in for him until this week and Sami has taken over.
All of them do the dressing differently.
Today was Sami's first look at the wound. She came around 9:15, promising to be done by the time Julie the Physical Therapist arrived at 10:15. And she was.
But she did an abbreviated version of the dressing change, omitting the SurePrep and the drape framing. She was about to omit the drape under the bridge, but we always watch for that. The foam can macerate the skin if you don't protect the skin with drape.
She had no idea what we were talking about.
But by the time she finished, we were up to 125 lbs. of pressure in the green zone. The pump wasn't quite silent but it wasn't laboring.
I'm a little worried that the foam wasn't cut small enough to avoid overlapping her skin. If the skin is red Friday, I'll ask Sami to use the Coloplast to protect it. That goes faster than framing the wound in drape (and she had difficulty handling the tape).
℘
JULIE ARRIVED shortly after, took Joyce's vital signs (the second of four times today) and put her to work doing small stepping and stretching exercises at the kitchen sink.
They went up and down the stairs and spent some time in the garage coming up with exercises she can do when getting into the car. I had mentioned to Julie that Joyce had trouble lifting her left when she was getting into the car.
That all went well.
Julie thinks the wound looks much improved and Joyce felt her leg muscles loosen up after the exercises.
℘
AT NOON we left for St. Francis. She watched Billy Elliot, which she always enjoys. It reminds her of her nephew Joey.
I took a walk around the neighborhood because I've been doing way too much sitting with all the driving and hyperbaric sessions and catching up on Photo Corners. Not nearly enough walking.
The ride home occasioned even more sitting. In traffic. 4/20 traffic. Robin Williams Meadow (formerly Sharon Meadow) was full of cannibis aficionados, some 15,000 of them.
But we made it. I dropped off Joyce and went on to my mother's where I did my usual chores and a few extras, like charging the battery of her wireless mouse, which I'd neglected lately.
And while it charged, I did the weekly grocery shopping at Trader Joe's. After which I dashed back to Mom's to reattach her mouse before returning home to put away the groceries and make dinner.
Not even the Wound VAC pumping continuously could wake me up after that.