Continued Improvement - Part 2

I guess I can say that I am steadily improving. I spent most of yesterday in the front room sitting in a chair (as opposed to on my bed), because various muscles were getting tired of being on the bed. But I found I could do it, so that's a good thing.

I went to Urgent Care yesterday so they could change the dressing under my arm. I could tell that this was not something neither the doctor nor the nurse had experience with, but they were very good at trying to help me - and compassionate, too.

I was able to change the dressing on my leg - the skin graft donor site. The wound care nurse, on Friday, covered the sensitive area with collagen and then just put a transparent plastic dressing over that. Then she covered the whole area in surgical pads and then we wrapped it in an ace bandage. It had leaked a bit on Friday night, so I changed the surgical pads and left the plastic over the sensitive area. The good news is that the plastic does not appear to be sticking to the wound, so less pain - and less time - will be used to change that dressing.

I will go to Urgent Care again this afternoon to have them change the dressing under my arm. I should also say that other than a bit of pseudomoniasis where the JP drains are, the rest of the infection on the skin appears to be gone. I do, however, still have an infection inside. I've been running a low-grade fever off and on. I am still on antibiotics until Wed. I hope the infection clears by then.

I am noticing that I need less of the dilaudid but really need the Tylenol. On Friday, I took my dose of Tylenol a couple of hours early, so then in order not to exceed my 4,000mg/day limit, I had to wait longer than six hours to get the next dose - I ended up taking a partial dose earlier and than another partial dose later and I found myself in more pain. On the other hand, yesterday, after I got back on schedule with the Tylenol, I found I could stretch the time between Dilaudid doses and not really feel anything. I could take 2-4mg every 3 hours. Through the evening and night last night, I stretched it to four hours - and I'm going to try five today. I want to start weaning myself from Dilaudid since it can be very physically addicting.

One of the mom's from Eddie's class brought over dinner yesterday - a delicious penne pasta with salad, garlic bread, and no-bake cookies. Thank you, M! An old friend of mine also sent an American Express Gift Card that I will use for something fun - thank you, P.! While I was in the hospital, one of my grad students brought over dinner for my family - thank you, J.! And, another grad student who works for me will bring over a meal tonight for us to use tomorrow. Thank you, R.! My colleagues also sent me flowers while in the hospital, which were very pretty and fragrant. The nurses said they liked coming into my room because it smelled a lot better than others. Another mom from Eddie's class took Eddie for a playmate last week and another one will take Eddie today, I think. I am grateful to all of you for your help.

So, yes, some improvement. And, that's a good thing.