I’m grateful that the week ended better than it started the first four days. I sent a long, heartfelt e-mail to the Chicago orthopod on Thursday evening and explained my final thoughts on the wound situation. The kicker all week was simply the fact that the plastic surgeon was insisting on this eight week oxygen regime that wouldn’t even start until the end of January. Each daily treatment (off Olive Blvd.) would be 2-2 ½ hrs., meaning I would need to miss work most of the afternoon for eight weeks and would need someone else to drive to every appointment. From a practical standpoint, I can't make this work.
The Chicago orthopod wanted him to close the wound surgically, but he wouldn’t. She didn’t want to go against his advice, so she was taking a “wait-and-see” approach as well. She agreed that it needed to be closed, but she also said that the plastic surgeon was the soft tissue guru.
My philosophy all along is that the wound had not closed for two reasons:
1. Stitches were removed at 10 days & were barely ready to be removed, but they were taken out. Once it is open, it is downhill from there.
2. I was allowed (told it was ok) to walk on it right away after surgery and while this is probably okay for the normal patient, it doesn’t work for me. “Non-weight bearing” for 2-3 weeks would very likely have been better.
I’m not a surgeon, but my gut feeling is that if we left the stitches in as long as necessary and was non-weight bearing, I somehow believe that this might be enough to get the wound to close. I fully agree w/the Chicago orthopod that the likelihood of a bone infection or vascular problem at this point is fairly unlikely (i.e. it would have surfaced long ago, if it existed). I am not concerned about either being an issue at this point.
There is no “extra” or fatty skin on my foot, so there is very little skin for the surgeon to pull the incision together and re-stitch. I have to really work to make it come together myself. The longer we go w/it open, the more it pulls apart. Pray that the incision stays clean & that there is enough skin for her to re-stitch, supposedly skin grafting is not an option.
Long story short, late on Friday I received an e-mail from the Chicago orthopod saying that I should give it until the beginning of next week, but that she was willing to close the wound surgically for me. If for some reason it still doesn’t heal, then I have to follow the plastic surgeon’s advice. PRAY PLAN #1 WORKS! She asked me to look at my schedule for the next two weeks. I will also suggest that we do all follow-up care w/her …. will mean more trips to Chicago, but at this point it is worth it. She operates on Tues/Thur. of each week, so I know it will be one of these days soon.
I am very, very thankful that she is willing to help and try to close the wound. It is unusual for one surgeon to do something opposite a colleague. Obviously she believes strong enough that it may work or she wouldn’t be offering to try. If it doesn’t work, I’ll be the first to admit that my thinking was wrong. I wouldn’t be offering to do 2-3 weeks on crutches, if I didn’t think it would help. This was all a huge mess and got much more complicated than it should have been earlier this week …. many thanks for your prayers. God and prayer warriors continue to be faithful.
I need to work through all the details Tues.-Wed. of this week and hopefully everything continues to fall into place. Hopefully the plastic surgeon will not be terribly upset with our decision.
“God is able to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”
(Ephesians 3:20)
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