January 24 to July 5, 2019

Coming home from seemed almost surreal after in in the hospital for nearly a full month. I know we talked about all my upcoming appointments, my life changes, my weigh loss and what really happened to me. I had Christmas presents that had not been used, clothes that needed to be washed and pets that I have not seen "in forever" it seemed.

My wife and I stayed up late just talking before I finally wore out. We talked about me just riding with her as she made several stops. I was just chaperoned around as she made nearly half dozen to a dozen stops. I just enjoyed being out for a change. 

When we got home that evening, I took my shoes off there my wife smelled an odor, As she helped me take my sock off she noticed it was wet and smelled. The bed sore on my left heel had burst. I did not feel a thing but it was nasty.

I could barely walk. My wife called one of our nurse family members and told them what she treated it with and they agreed that she did everything right. We had a home health nurse coming the next day and they could treat it.

The next day, home health said it was treated right and was probably just going to burst anyway - home or hospital. The nurse treated it and wrapped it and said she would return day after tomorrow.

She return when she said she would and a PT/OT nurse also came that day to help get me started on home training. They both worked me over but the PT/OT was really tough since I was still week from a month in the hospital. Over the next 3-4 weeks they did what they thought I needed before suggesting I go to the Wound Care Center of the hospital.

During all this time I also had doctor's appointments almost every week plus my own personal doctor. They all wanted to check my heel, my hernia incision and my kidneys plus my physical health. It got tiring to say the least.

Finally, the Wound Care Center put me on a hydrotherapy machine for several weeks which did help my heel wound. after that they tried a V.A.C. system on my heel which work really well but it was awkward to wear around 24 hours a day for weeks on end. It got old after a couple of months.

Then, they released me from that and cut my Wound Care Center visits to only a couple of times a week then that got narrowed to only once a week. All this mixed around other doctor visits. One for my scalp (a dermatologist). a kidney doctor and others. 

Finally, I was "released" from each of them because they said everything was looking good and my weight kept dropping - now down to 190. I kept having to order other pants because those kept changing too - now down to a 36x30 - which looks good.
 
It has been six moths since all this started and I had another
Wound Care Center visit and everything looked good. My heel wound , as the doctor said "Looks really good, looks like it has completely healed up with only a very small scab. I'll see you in TWO weeks for a routine follow up. Don't wrap it and you can wear a normal shoe now. We will schedule a visit so that they can make a new AFO for you. Any questions?"


July 5, 2019 just became my favorite day.