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!