As I near the 33.3 percent milestone of my 36-visit (shh...35) leg therapy journey, I must pause to sing the praises of my OT. She really knows her stuff. While inconvenient to drive 45 minutes one-way three times a week, the appointments themselves are not unpleasant. That's a rousing endorsement from Mrs. HM. Or maybe I'm succumbing to Stockholm Syndrome...
Anyhoo... OT was pleased with the progress she observed on Friday. Looking at the inner part of my right knee, she moved the skin around and exclaimed,
"Look how soft and wrinkly it is!"
"Uh. Yes. It really is... My son would say, 'You elderlies, with your papery-thin skin!'"
"Oh. I don't want you to take that the wrong way. In the lymphedema world, 'soft and wrinkly' is GREAT! That's what we look for! I have to remember when I tell people that. I don't want them think I'm insulting them, or making fun. It's just what we like to see. What we're working for. One lady even had wrinkly TOES! Oh, look. YOU also have wrinkles in your toes."
"I see that now. I didn't think you were making fun. It's nice to see that progress."
"Some of that loose wrinkly-ness will go away, the longer it goes."
"Well. Not a lot, because I AM old, and my skin isn't so elastic anymore."
"I have one guy, he's in his 90s--"
"Oh, so he has a couple years on me, heh, heh!"
"Yeah. His daughter brings him in. He's on some kind of blood-thinner. I have to be really careful of his skin. And another guy who bleeds if you just look at him wrong. Like, he can just take off his pants and there's a fresh cut bleeding. I say, 'How do you DO that?' So I have to be aware of each person and how their skin reacts."
Indeed. I, myself, had some weird wound on my left leg on Wednesday. Took the support stocking off, and OT said, "WHAT am I going to do with you? There's some kind of sore on your leg!"
She held the mirror because I couldn't see it. WOW! It was about the size of a half-dollar, all white and gooey. I was worried that was PUS, but OT didn't think so. She swiped at it with a paper towel, and it rubbed off. "I think it's just wet skin. Maybe that area wasn't all the way dry when you put your sock back on after showering."
My thought was that I had a little nick there that was oozing, and being trapped in a support stocking and the rubbery velcro wraps made it all gooshy in that area, like when you have a bandaid that gets wet, and turns the skin soft and white. OT had put a non-stick gauze pad in there Wednesday, and on this day, there was just a tiny circle of fluid soaked in. So we're just waiting for that to close up. No infection, nothing to worry about.
That's the thing. OT is really good with people skills. I have a toenail that wants to fall off, and she said,
"It's not a big deal. I had one lady who had THREE toenails pop off as I was taking off her socks! I told her, 'Um. Did you not feel that? That's not normal. You might want to keep an eye on that.' She didn't really seem concerned."
I hope other clients are enjoying such stories about ME, heh, heh! Just saying, OT has a way of putting people at ease, like whatever is going on with you is not the most horrific thing she's ever seen!
