I’ve posted already about trying to wrap my head around likely wearing compression socks for the rest of my life, etc., but quite frankly, I’m doing more “compartmentalization” of it than anything. I need to get through wound care first.
On the positive side, things seem to have “clarified” as to what was going on with the leg. As I mentioned previously, the area that is affected is an area with a bunch of scars from when I was a kid. Whenever I skinned my knee or scraped a shin, it was likely that leg. I lead with it, I protect the rest of my body with it, I fall more on that one than not. So it got dinged pretty well. One time dirtbiking, I smacked it pretty well with a foot peg on an ATV, and it was a giant black bruise for about a month. Probably should have had that looked at, but didn’t. Shake it off, just a flesh wound, right?
And now, as an adult, my streak continues. If I ding it, it is likely in the same spot. I hit it with the dishwasher door, my car door, or, a few months ago, the side of a laundry basket in the dark. No biggie, except, well, over the last few years with my weight and pre-diabetes stuff, I have swelling in my legs ergo more water, and that area has blistered. I thought it was just blistering on the scars, but now that things have healed mostly, you can see that it is around the scars, certainly, and in the area, most definitely, but in addition to the scars, I have simple blisters here and there. They fill with water, I catch them on something, they break, they leak, they dry out, they annoy me for a few weeks, they heal, the cycle starts again. Except this last time, I scraped a pretty big area and they didn’t heal very well. Partly the excess water, partly my age, partly that I’m not doing as regular a routine for early morning showering and scrubbing for personal hygiene as when I actually ever left the house. Not egregiously so, just not as regularly. Often because my sleep was screwed up, I was up late, I overslept, rushing to start work, no time some mornings for proper cleanse. Slam, bam, rinse you, ma’am? I dunno, there’s probably a rhyme there somewhere. Regardless, call it some form of leg ulcer, and move on.
And this time it got infected. Wound care and compression has helped heal it, and seeing the benefits of the wound care has shown me that this thing was NEVER going to heal on its own. Even without the infection, I’ve had proper care on it with compression for 3 weeks and there is still a small area that is “open”. But it’s working. One giant leap forward, right?
Plus, while I compartmentalized the future for compression socks, I finally got my doctor’s office to forward a prescription for custom-fit socks after two weeks of calling in order for me to now go on Tuesday to get them. Yay. Okay, not really “yay”, just “tick”, it’s moving forward. And I do have a tube compression on the left leg that is removable, which is nice to give me a break at night.
But if progress comes on one front, I normally see backsliding somewhere else. And in this case, it’s not that far away. I took antibiotics for 10d, seemed to fix me up, but this past week, my wound has been a bit sorer than normal. It’s covered, so I can’t monitor it daily, only every 3d, and on Monday they removed a bunch of dead skin around it, so not surprising that when they were done, it was quite red and annoyed. On Thursday, that redness seemed even more pronounced and a bit “wider”. The nurse marked the edges of it with a pen to see if it goes any further by Sunday (my next wound care treatment), but she felt it was a tad warmer than the rest of the area, so I took pics (as I do every visit), and forwarded a series of 6 photos to my family doctor. I then had a phone appointment this afternoon with a resident in the clinic and it was great. She agreed it was prudent to continue the antibiotics just in case, and although I’ve been on them before, it seems like a prudent risk. I don’t know that I would do the same ones again anytime soon, as I’m risking resistance, but once more into the fray. So I have antibiotics for another 14d. If I get flushed, nauseated, pain, shivers, etc. in the next 48h before the antibiotics take hold, I have to go to the ER. Fun times.
Two steps forward, one step back.
Which also means that I’m self-conscious now. Almost like memes about COVID. Wait, I have to watch for shivers? Well, I’m cold right now, what does that mean? Or my wound is giving me a sharp pain right now, what does that mean? Generally, it means I’m sitting in a cold basement AND I need to stretch my leg again that has been in the same position for an hour. Doofus. I’m supposed to stay vigilant, not paranoid.
On the other hand, Jacob and I binge-watched Captain American, Captain Marvel, and Iron Man 2 today, plus started a medium-sized Lego project, so it was a good day overall. Close two compartments, open another, onward!
