30 May 2023
After rescheduling a number of times, Joyce finally got another office visit with Dr. Tong. She didn't get into the 10 a.m. appointment this morning until nearly 10:30 but the case before her was a little more complicated than the patient expected, he said as he left.
Dr. Tong took a look at Joyce's wound, changed the dressing and then invited me to join them.
She was quite pleased with how the wound looked. It's smaller, for one thing, and pinker.
It looked healthy so she didn't do any biopsies this time. But when she sees Joyce again next month (or so), she will, just to keep ahead of any cancer. That's the risk of leaving the wound open so long. Three years now.
Then she walked us through the next phase of treatment. A hospital stay of five weeks for debridement, Wound VAC recovery, application of the bovine tissue Integra to seal the open wound, more Wound VAC but wet-to-dry at home for a few weeks before shaving off some skin from the outside of her legs to close the wound.
She's described that before. So no surprises.
The question was, "When?"
She's happy to let it ride for now, another couple of months, after Joyce's family visits (Carol, Mary, Whitney, Viv and Judy are coming at the end of July), a year even. You can just keep doing the dressing changes, she said.
"You're funny," I told her.
So we're going to keep treading water. As long as the wound is getting smaller and stays healthy, it's worth it to wait. The skin graft will be smaller.
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I NEGLECTED TO MENTION that Joyce had a CT scan of her brain a week ago on Tuesday. It took three minutes and cost a mere $195.
The scan is a prerequisite for Kaiser's Memory Clinic, which Joyce's primary ordered for her after a brief exam. Joyce couldn't remember three words a few minutes after hearing them.
We're waiting to hear about that appointment.