It's bizarre to me to think that 17 days have passed since I last blogged, 18 days since I had the necrotic flesh removed, 34 days since the mauling. At times it seems like the time has flown. At other times, I feel like I'm stuck in the Doldrums. The healing process has taken a lot out of me. My mood swings from tearful and sad to angry and frustrated to listless and apathetic. I'm tired all the time, and doing the littlest things wipes me out. I take naps and wake up feeling exhausted. I was told to eat a lot of protein, so I've been loading up on proteins, taking vitamins, and trying to eat lots of fresh, healthy food. Still, despite all the eating and being mostly sedentary, I've lost 4 pounds. I'm drinking a lot of water, but I still feel thirsty.
Up until this past Wednesday, the visiting nurses were coming in every day to check on me, check my vitals, and to irrigate and re-pack the wound. I had follow-up appointments with my surgeon July 1 and July 6 with additional debridements. Instead of three holes and a Swiss Cheese leg, I ended up with just one big mother-f*cking hole. As of July 7th, it was 7.7 cm long (3.03"), 3.4 cm wide (1.34") and 2.2 cm deep (0.87"). I developed a bacterial infection, which a culture swab showed to be three different types of bacteria -- Pseudomonas, Proteus mirabilis and something else from the Enterobacteriaceae family the nurse couldn't even pronounce. They started me on a 14-day course of 750 mg of Ciprofloxacin 2x/day last Friday morning (July 10), so I still have 6 more days to go with that. The Cipro gives me TERRIBLE heartburn and acid reflux and also makes me feel dizzy. At least the acid response I can control with Pepcid AC. I found as long as I take the Pepcid at least 15 minutes before the Cipro, I can stomach it.
Up until the past week, I was continuing to experience a lot of swelling and a lot of acute pain, and I still needed the Percocet to manage it. I don't know if it was the Cipro knocking out the infection or just the passage of time, but at least for the past 5 days, the pain has settled down to a dull roar, and I've been able to manage it without any Percocet, which is a good thing. I still get some occasional burning and stinging, but mostly now I'm getting a lot of itching and general tenderness in the area.
Anyways, on my last surgeon appointment July 13th, my doctor said I was finally ready for a wound VAC, which is another good thing. She'd told me all along the wound need to be "clean" before a VAC could be used, and the wound was finally clean. The rental VAC unit arrived via UPS Tuesday, and the visiting nurse installed it on Wednesday morning. VAC stands for Vacuum Assisted Closure. It's a medical device that provides controlled negative pressure to draw out fluids and to promote wound closing. It stays on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The pressure setting for my wound is 125 mm Hg (millimeters of Mercury), so it's not a whole lot of pressure when you think about it. A GranuFoam dressing (like a black sponge) gets stuffed into the wound hole, covered with a clear adhesive drape (like Saran wrap), and then sterile plastic tubing gets attached and connected to the VAC device and drainage canister. The GranuFoam is supposed to assist in the formation of new granulation tissue inside the wound.
I've heard from multiple people that I'll be amazed at how quickly my wound heals with the VAC, so I'm anxiously awaiting the miraculous results. The VAC is not painful, but I do feel the constant suction pressure. There's a presence on my leg I can't ignore. Carrying around the 3 pound VAC device with the drainage tube hanging all over the place is kind of hard to ignore as well. Then there's the occasional slurping sound it makes as it draws the drainage through the tube, like when you suck on a straw in a drink that's mostly empty (gross, I know).
The visiting nurse now comes only Monday, Wednesday and Friday to change the VAC dressing. The other days are just resting and recovering. I see my surgeon again this coming Monday, July 20, and I can't wait to hear what she says about the progress. All I care about right now is getting the hole in my leg closed so that I can go back to work and try to resume a normal life. I'll worry about the horrific scar I'm going to have later on.
My friends have been absolutely AMAZING, helping me out with rides, company, food, etc., and out-of-state family and friends have cheered me up with phone calls, get-well cards and care packages. :-)
On the legal front, at least my complaint against the dog owner finally got filed on July 14. It took a month. She has been charged under 3 P.S. § 459-502-A with the summary offense of harboring a dangerous dog. I got the notice of trial in the mail yesterday, and the dog owner's trial is set for August 26, another six weeks away. It's frustrating to me how long the process has taken.
