On the Safe Side

I saw my regular wound care nurse yesterday. She felt that there might be a residual infection, but that, for the most part, my body is doing what it needs to do to heal the wound under my armpit. Mostly, it's because my body's temperature has hovered between 97.5 and 99.1, which is normal and does not indicate that I have an internal infection.

She also felt there was a little bit of gray necrotic tissue, but that there is healthy pink tissue underneath. That was in the main area of the wound.

The area at the front of my armpit has more drainage and necrotic tissue. She can see staples and also stitches. It makes me wonder if somehow that area was supposed to be closed but got torn open when they took the wound vac off. Or something.

The drainage is still cloudy and tan, which may be more an indication of necrotic tissue than infection. L., my nurse, put a honey dressing on the area. Honey is good for pseudomoniasis (thanks for telling me about that, Amy!). We'll see if she continues with that today or not. It has also helped some with odor.

To be on the safe side, though, my surgeon here in town put me back on antibiotic for another week.

My leg is healing - it itches. It's not very painful anymore. I only have a transparent dressing on it.

There is increased swelling around my left forearm, just below my elbow, and up that arm. Dr. F wanted to put a sleeve on it, but I just don't want to deal with that right now.

So, I'm doing better. I still get tired of sitting up and will lie down on bed. That's a function of trying to keep my left elbow elevated. I end up tensing my left shoulder. It has a permanent knot in it. And on antibiotics to keep away any kind of infection.