Finally a Little Good News

Well today Dr. Ennis visited Paula again and again gave her a glowing report. Her graft on the front has taken well, and her big wound has healed more and actually gotten smaller. He wants to do the skin graft on the big wound this Friday, and the wound has healed enough he feels it will take even less tissue to cover it than he originally planned for. So Friday at 10AM she will go to St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields and have the surgery done, then back to Crestwood Care in the afternoon following recovery. The wound vac machine will then be attached to the front and back of her leg (I am unclear if it will be one machine or two as of this writing) to draw moisture (lots of it) away fro the wound site to aid in healing. Another positive thing is after the surgery they will only change dressings about twice a week until the new tissue has a chance to take to the existing tissue. Since these dressings are the source of a great amount of Paula's pain, we are hoping that sealing the wound and then dressing it less may result in more comfort by next week. We are hopeful anyway.

Paula has been such a good trooper during this. She is so scared, and so lonely and homesick, it depresses me to even think about it. We so need for this surgery to work Friday, for her to be able to get through the fear and the pain of it, and for this graft to take to her leg as well as the small graft has these past couple weeks. If it does, a couple weeks from now we may even begin a coming home countdown, and I know that would just mean the world to both of us. Please, keep Paula in your thoughts and prayers, especially this week and Friday, as this is of maximumimportance right now in our lives. I will keep you posted on new developments as I know them.

Your thoughts and prayers have helped get us to this point, please continue to prayer for her safety and quick, complete recovery. Thank you so much for your kindness!

Sunday Visit to Paula

We should know by mid-week if Paula's skin graft surgery on the big wound will be this week or not (if so it would probably be Friday) check back here for updates. Please keep us in your prayers. Her leg is better, but her emotions are not. She is tired, scared and depressed beyond belief. My birthday is Wednesday, which depresses her even more, because she likes to fuss over me and can't this year. To me, it's like, well we'll celebrate when you get home... She just doesn't see it that way. Women . . . You gotta love them! All the torture she is going through, and she worries more about me than anything except her surgery.

I am hanging in there, I just got back from seeing her which was nice. I will go again Wednesday and spend a bit of birthday time with her, but I have sworn her not to celebrate until she gets home. I know her and she would spend the next three days decorating and saving crackers and treats from her meal trays each day in hopes of giving me some sort of party. She is simply the best girl in the whole world! Or at least the best to ME, and thats all I give a shit about!

Thank you for caring and checking back here.

Tuesday Doctor Visit

Well, Dr. Ennis, Paula's specialist saw her again today and again gave her a glowing report on the small skin graft they did a week and a half ago on the front of her leg, and said they are about ready to do the large graft on the original wound, possibly as early as next week. (I hope to know within a few days when exactly) So Paula has considerable fear of the pain of surgery (with only local pain anestetic being used) and of rejection of the graft itself. I have to hope that it is all progress toward the end goal of getting her healed and then home.

Best case scenario, probably 3-4 weeks of inpatient care follows the graft, then there is a possiblity of outpatient or home care after that. As dreadful as that is, four more weeks is a drop in the bucket compared to what she has already been through. My hope is that they can graft the large wound and it will start sealing up, which should help to calm al those exposed nerves that have been causing this pain all these months. This is a wound about 5 inches x 5 inches, roughly as big as the palm of my hand. (And I have a big hand, LOL) If you can imagine the pain of a paper cut (when you expose the nerve endings under your skin to oxygen) then multiply that to a wound 5"x5" or so, you can see the room for an amazing amount of pain.

As soon as I know when the large skin graft will be, I will post it here, and of course will try to keep up with progress. Thank you so much for reading this, and for all your kindness and support through these difficult times. I still have faith we are going to get through this!

Sick and Tired

Well as luck would have it, Paula, her mom and I have all caught colds, and have had it rough. I think her mom started it, and pased it on to us seperately, because Paula and I both had it before we saw each other on Sunday. It has been miserable. I don't get colds often, but man they set me back. When I can't breath good everything messes up. Paula's specialist graced her with his presence again today and once again gave her a glowing report on her leg's progress. The graft on the front shows new tissue growth and the open wound on the back shows more progress as well. He didn't mention a date for a graft on he back, only to say "soon." We will take that for now as progress. the pain management doctor is changing her meds again to try and get her more relief, as she has still been in a lot of pain. That should start tomorrow.

I have held it together pretty well until now, but I really need to kick this cold. I am exhausted, feel weak, and can't rest good if I can't breath good. I'll let you know if anything happens that doesn't SUCK. Right now nothing much comes to mind.

Skin Graft Update

Well Paula's week of activities culminated on Friday with a skin graft to a small wound on the front of her leg performed at St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields. They then applied a machine called a Wound Vac which attaches to the wound site and slowly sucks drainage out and away from the wound to speed the healing process. Thi machine stays attached 24/7, and has a big plastic tube (that you get to see your yummy, bubbly drainage coming through) that goes back to the machine that has its own little wheeled stand that you get to drag around with you whereever you may go. Not fun, but right now if strapping that thing on her head and singing into it would get her home sooner, she would do it.

The weekend was up and down. She does have moments were the discomfort isn't to bad. But when the pain flares up, there is just about no relief for it. It is scary. Truly, I don't see why anybody should have to suffer so much. Th changing of the pain meds has seemed to help some, but it also makes her more groggy more of the time, so her sleep pattern is completely thrown off. Its just an hour or two here and there, all day and night. That is still much better than only sleeping when you are so exhausted you finally give up for a couple hours and then are awakened by acute pain.

The good news is that yesterday (Tuesday) her specialist came back to check the skin graft and said it couldn't look any better than it does, and really liked the progress it has made in such a short time. This is very encouraging to Paula's mom and I, but Paula is defeated enough that she just feels it will never end anyway. It is very sad. I try very hard to motivate her to be positive, but her reserves are just shot. She is still in pain, still can't go home, and still doesn't know when either issue will be fixed. Who would be positive? All I can say is, we have some decent news and it is something to cling to. We are doing everything that can be done, and progress is being made.

Please just keep Paula in your thoughts and prayers.

Paula's Busy Week

Paula had a pretty eventful (and stressful) week. Tuesday her wound specialist saw her, and laid out a pretty regimented plan for the week, which included visits to two different hospitals and a skin graft surgery on a small wound on the front of her leg on Friday. On Wednesday she went back to Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn to see her Pain Management Specialist and he changed and increased her pain medication to see if they could get her more comfortable. The trip, with all the jostling around and walking and waiting was very exhausting and by the afternoon she was in quite a bit of pain. Thursday was spent recovering from Wednesday and dreading Friday. Yesterday she went to St. James Hospital in Olympia Fields where Dr. Ennis did her skin graft. Everything went according to plans, and she was sent back to Crestwood Care with a wound vac placed on her leg to draw drainage out and away from the wound to promote healing. Now we wait and see how the leg responds to the new donor tissue. As I get more info and/or results I will update.

TGIF Almost

Man, what a shitty life I lead. I haven't enjoyed much of anything in months, but especially the last 5 1/2 weeks with Paula being away. Even last weekend, a long weekend, full of racing, and I got little enjoyment whatsoever. I must say though, if you missed the end of the Indy 500, you really missed a good one. . . The Coke 600 NASCAR race was excellent as well, with a Dodge pulling out the win. (Most people would know I am a diehard MOPAR man)

Regarding Paula:

Sorry it has been a while but not a lot has changed this past week. This week things are moving along, she saw her specialist Tuesday who liked her progress and wants her to go to St. James on Friday for a skin graft on the small wound on the front of her leg to see how her body responds to the surgery. If this goes well it may speed up the surgery for the big wound on the back of her leg. Yesterday she went back to Christ Hosp. to see her pain management specialist and he changed her meds and upped her dosage on some things to try and make her more comfortable.

So she is terrified about tomorrows events and the success (or lack thereof) of them. Yesterday was a quite painful day for her, and this past week the pain has been harder to manage as the treatments become more agressive. (That is why she was sent back to the pain specialist yesterday)

So anyway, she is making progress, but still no real positive timeline for her as far as coming home. A lot is riding on the success or failure of tomorrow's surgery, so I ask you please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

I appreicate all the kindness and well wishes. Believe me, I have days where it is those things that keep me going. I will keep you posted as I know more.