Start at the begining
We went home and continued to follow the Dr's orders. Every night we changed bandages and every night I looked at my dead black finger. It was so unreal. So hard to believe yet there it was, I was looking at it, so obviously shriveled, black dead. I still wanted to keep it.
News travels fast and most of our friends knew amputation was imminent, we decided to get out and go to a social event at a friends a day or two before surgery. It was at a friends house that I really respected and we probably wouldn't have gone otherwise.
We had a mediocore time and as I was saying my goodbyes the host herself said "So what are we going to call you now, Stubby Finger?"
I know, Wow. How do you respond to that? I suppose my look of shock and awe spoke for itself. She said "Oh I'm sorry" and something about hurt feelings. Tim said later that I responded well which is not generally the case so I was glad of that. After cancer you expect that people will be stupid but it always catches you off gaurd.
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Saturday, February 16, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Surgery 1
Start from the beginning
Don't eat after midnight, report to admissions 9 am, then anasthesiology, the surgery waiting room, then surgery prep....
So many people, so many Dr's, so many can'ts, don'ts and I-don't-know's. I was lost in it all, so was Tim. He was afraid of hospitals, and just as scared as I was, but you wouldn't have known it. We went through a whole lot of hurry up and wait, met some neat people - Donna was my favorite, and everything seemed fine when we left. The next two days the bandage really hurt I had three conversations over whether or not the bandage might be too tight, or I was imagining things. I loosened it a bit at the bottom after the last one and went in the following week for follow-up.
It was pretty obvious the Dr. was looking at something he had not expected yet trying to look as non-committal as possible. I had few expectations but I had not expected what I was looking at. The index finger was black and shriveled over most of the right side, and the top of the middle finger was all white and mangled. I hadn't even cut that part. Both of them had what looked like yellow thumb tacks coming out of the ends. It was the middle finger that was perplexing the Dr. He told us that the first knuckle of the index finger and all of the white skin on the middle finger was dead. We would have to amputate and do a skin graft the following week. Swelling should be over and he wanted us to change the bandage daily now.
Wow was he wrong!
That middle finger swelled up the size of a German sausage and I am not kidding. So, I called and talked to his nurse about the enormity of it 2 days latter and she said to come down and she would help us change the bandage and look at it. I e-mailed Tim and we went up around 4:30 Friday afternoon. Immediately she went and got the Dr.
It had developed fluid and would have to be cleaned out now. The Dr and two nurses stayed late to do what they called a "debridement" and surgery plans changed. Now we would be amputating and another debridement sooner rather than later. Grafting would be unlikely, still change the bandage daily.
More
Don't eat after midnight, report to admissions 9 am, then anasthesiology, the surgery waiting room, then surgery prep....
So many people, so many Dr's, so many can'ts, don'ts and I-don't-know's. I was lost in it all, so was Tim. He was afraid of hospitals, and just as scared as I was, but you wouldn't have known it. We went through a whole lot of hurry up and wait, met some neat people - Donna was my favorite, and everything seemed fine when we left. The next two days the bandage really hurt I had three conversations over whether or not the bandage might be too tight, or I was imagining things. I loosened it a bit at the bottom after the last one and went in the following week for follow-up.
It was pretty obvious the Dr. was looking at something he had not expected yet trying to look as non-committal as possible. I had few expectations but I had not expected what I was looking at. The index finger was black and shriveled over most of the right side, and the top of the middle finger was all white and mangled. I hadn't even cut that part. Both of them had what looked like yellow thumb tacks coming out of the ends. It was the middle finger that was perplexing the Dr. He told us that the first knuckle of the index finger and all of the white skin on the middle finger was dead. We would have to amputate and do a skin graft the following week. Swelling should be over and he wanted us to change the bandage daily now.
Wow was he wrong!
That middle finger swelled up the size of a German sausage and I am not kidding. So, I called and talked to his nurse about the enormity of it 2 days latter and she said to come down and she would help us change the bandage and look at it. I e-mailed Tim and we went up around 4:30 Friday afternoon. Immediately she went and got the Dr.
It had developed fluid and would have to be cleaned out now. The Dr and two nurses stayed late to do what they called a "debridement" and surgery plans changed. Now we would be amputating and another debridement sooner rather than later. Grafting would be unlikely, still change the bandage daily.
More
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