Remember the hole in my leg from CasinoPalooza? The jagged gouge caused by slamming my own leg with the door of A-Cad at the Lee's Chicken in Genius's College Town? It has been three weeks. So I figured it's probably mostly healed. It stopped leaking clear fluid on the Friday after the Tuesday injury. I've kept it covered, with triple antibiotic ointment on a 2x4 inch bandaid.
Farmer H is not enthusiastic about changing the bandaid for me. Even though I get everything opened and ready to slap on my leg, and make him wash his hands with GermX first. So my leg was only getting changed every third day. Oh, I still showered. I didn't scrub the wound. Just let the water run over it. Afterward, I'd dab at it with clean squares of toilet paper, to absorb any waterlogging.
Farmer H told me every time he put on a new bandaid that my wound looked good.
"It's getting a scab. I think you should let it stay uncovered, to heal."
Even though he said it was already healed!
So... I took the bandaid off on Wednesday, and left the leg-hole uncovered for my trip to town. After all, that's the advice I was getting from the person who can SEE it.
Anyhoo... you know that I can't see the back of my knee/calf area where the wound is. But on Wednesday, I took a picture with my phone after I got home and changed into sweatpants. It LOOKED okay. Until I zoomed in on the picture! It's got raggedy edges. A darker spot that could be the beginnings of a scab. One little tuft of what I assume is fresh skin growing out, very pink. The rough outer edges are a bit yellowish. It's not oozing anything, so I hope that's just the dead skin that hasn't rubbed on clothing or bedsheets to slough off after the injury.
Anyhoo... I gave Farmer H a lecture about his Florence Nightingale skills. He still swore that the wound looks good. I showed him the picture. Zoomed in. He agreed that the edges were questionable in that closeup, but swore it must have just happened, because it didn't look like that every time he put on a new bandaid.
Uh huh. Sure.
Anyhoo... I washed the wound with soap and water, then dabbed it dry and let it air dry further. THEN I had Farmer H put on another fresh bandaid. I told him we are going to change it EVERY DAY, and I'll wait until he gets home for my shower and leg-scrubbing.
Farmer H put on the 2x4 bandaid as usual. Then put on the regular size bandaid along the bottom edge of that 2x4, to keep it from rolling up on the bottom edge when I thrash around in bed.
YOUCH!
"What are you hollering about? I just was making sure that bottom bandaid was sticking."
"NO! You poked right on the injury! HARD! Right in the middle of it!"
"I did not. It was the edge of that bottom bandaid. You're crazy."
"I felt it at the deepest part of that hole in my leg! You are NOT supposed to push on an injury that's under a bandaid!"
Farmer H still denied such behavior.
I'm pretty sure he's trying to kill me. After torturing me first.
4 comments:
I still think you should have seen a doctor, with rough jagged edges it probably should have been stitched.
River,
I think a doctor would have just slathered on some antibiotic ointment, and covered it with a bandage. There's a crater of missing flesh that was gouged out. I don't think you can pull the edges over a hole and stitch them together.
What could a doctor do, fill that hole with old candy wrappers and napkins, like my 4th-best old teaching buddy Cindy found inside her airbag compartment, when she took her car to the shop to see why it didn't deploy when she hit a wild turkey on the highway?
The scab that is forming should be left alone and not pushed on (you may quote me). I doubt they would have stitched it. Feel your leg, if it is hot and tender to the touch, you should see the doctor, don't worry about the yellow, scabs start out yellow. After you get a good scab in place you can leave it uncovered except when sleeping if you are worried about dislodging the scab. At least you know when you hurt it and how, I sometimes look down and see blood running down my arms or legs and have no idea what happened!
Kathy,
I've been thinking about the scab forming. When my bandage was going 3 days between changings, I felt like I needed to scrub (gently, of course) that yellow goo and ointment off in the shower. Today I just lightly went over the area with a soapy hand, and let it rinse under the water stream. Now my bandage is bare, without the ointment. We'll see how it looks tomorrow. Hopefully the bandage won't pull the forming scab off. It was just a big (to me) hole, and hard for a scab to start at the edges and cover the whole hole. I know it's been healing from the inside out, because it is not a deep hole now.
My leg is not hot, and only tender if pushed on! Sometimes I feel a PINCH at random times. I guess that has something to do with healing, or the bandage pulling on it.
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