Here’s an update on my ongoing foot health situation:
First, I should be going home later today or tomorrow.
I had an MRI yesterday which showed no major infection in the bones of my foot. The oozing wound on my foot is more of a surface/skin problem and treatable. If the infection had gotten to the bone, I’d be talking about amputation. I had part of that foot amputated in May 2016.
Yesterday a wound specialist cleaned and bandaged my foot and used some silver-impregnated sponge on it, and as silver is the (ahem) gold standard for wound care, that’s about as good as I can get. I will be getting the foot bandage changed every day for a week or two, depending on how quickly it heals and get a “surgical sandal” to wear because I can’t put pressure on that part of my foot. I’ve been taking lots of pictures to document the progress and will continue to do so. It looks like I’ll be keeping the foot, at least for now.
However, my medical things have morphed beyond a simple foot problem. Something in this treatment has triggered swelling and an outbreak of bloody spots on my feet, legs, arms, and hands. The knuckles of my hand have swollen and several are turning blackish-red. It’s a condition called “Leukocytoclastic vasculitis”, which is a rare condition and I’ve had it before. It is quite painful and sometimes it feels like my limbs are on fire.
I had this problem with Leukocytoclastic vasculitis about 2002 and spent several weeks in this same hospital at that time. It took about ten days for doctors then to diagnose the problem. I have informed the doctors now about what happened in 2002 and the agree it seems to be the same or very similar. That I know what’s happening from a before has probably saved me days or even weeks of time in the hospital.
The doctors think that thisLeukocytoclastic vasculitis is treatable as an outpatient, so so I shall be going home soonish.
As the doctors only come by once a day to do rounds, and the Leukocytoclastic vasculitis problem had not manifested by yesterday morning, I spent the day with my hands becoming increasingly swollen, red, with bloody eruptions. This hospital visit has been terrible in that I have been often ignored when I try to explain things and they have been reluctant to give me any significant pain relief. Yesterday I in such pain that I felt like I was on fire but doctors pretty much ignored my pleas for some form of pain relief. I think it’s because of the opioid crisis that results in people who really need the relief not getting it. Indeed when I asked for morphine, which I have had many times in the past, I was met with grilling about “how do you know what morphine does” as though that is some sort of guilty knowledge, ignoring all the times I’ve been in a hospital and gotten morphine in the past. It’s been very frustrating to have to endure flaming hot pain without any good reason.
To top things off, my siblings have discovered I’ve been in the hospital. To give some backstory to those who don’t know, I do not get along with my siblings. My brother is a Trump supporter who used to say that “the only reason” our late father was a Democrat was that he was “too senile to resist” my influence, even though Dad for my whole life used to say he didn’t make enough money to be a Republican. After Dad died he left the heavily mortgaged family home to all three of us, and I get to stay there as long as I pay rent to the other two siblings. However, they clearly want to use any excuse to force me out so they can sell the house and get what little cash could be had after the mortgage is paid off. My sister called me to tell me she had heard I was in the hospital and also said that my brother wanted access to the house while I’m in the hospital. I told her I already had someone to come in and take care of my dogs, and then my sister started a rant about how I was bringing in some unreliable person into the house, even though she does not know the person and assumed, as usual, that I am so stupid that I would bring in any crazy person to check the dogs. The phone call got ugly and the takeaway was that there was no concern from my sister about me, but only about how she could somehow manipulate the situation. It was stressful to have to deal with that at the same time as the flaming pains.
I’m scheduled to go back to substitute teaching next Tuesday. I’ll have one foot in a special surgical sandal, so that will be interesting.
If all goes well, I will soon be cuddling some very excited and happy puppers as well as a couple of pooties who shall give me the “Where have YOU be” attitude.
Thanks to all who have sent good wishes. Knowing people were pulling for me was helpful as I spent time in painful nerve fire pain. :-D
#jtg