Another bleak autumn day. The quality of light is disconcerting, giving everything a grayish feeling to it, quite appropriate as the plants and animals start to hunker down for another winter. Its one of those days that make me wish for snow to bring some brightness to it all. All the browns and greys out there with the now bare trees, in this quality of light, is depressing! I’ve been hiding in the basement office, supposedly studying for yet another exam. It seems like there’s always another exam… Instead of spending all the time studying Service Strategy, I’ve been tinkering … Continue reading
Category: forearm flap
The Glove(s) are off… sort of.
Working with information provided by the surgeon’s office, as relayed to me by my Home Care nurse, today I am changing the way the forearm flap skin graft area is bandaged. The wound is essentially healed and no longer needs the layer upon layer of protection. So, no more Adaptic. We’re doing away with the gauzes. Just the tubi-form, or elastic bandage will be rolled on to prevent damage to the wound site. Yay!So now its just a matter of applying moisturizers a couple times a day, and protecting the site from extremes of hot and cold, and not using … Continue reading The Glove(s) are off… sort of.
Forearm Flap Healing Well
Here are another couple of shots of my forearm skin graft over the area the surgeons took the flap of skin to rebuild the back of my throat (and part of my tongue?). As you can see, it is healing extremely well. In fact, if it weren’t for the need to protect the newly healed area from being damaged by clothing and general, everyday activity, it probably doesn’t need the bandages anymore. As it is in an area that is subjected to incidental contact with way too many things, we are continuing to cover it. Tight to the skin is … Continue reading Forearm Flap Healing Well
Updated ForeArm Photos and other updates.
As promised, here are a couple of shots of the forearm skin graft area. Remember that this is the area from which they pulled tissue to repair the back of the throat and the back of the tongue after removing the tumour and excising extra for ‘margins’. Please also note the long, thin scar running up the arm; this is where they removed the radial artery used in reconstructing/reconnecting the arteries and veins damaged during the surgery. Hmmm… I really need to use a bit more vitamin e cream on that.By the way, the Lee Valley Tools mucking gloves work … Continue reading Updated ForeArm Photos and other updates.
Just a hint…
There are certain day-to-day frustrations that accompany this bloody condition, some of which are directly tied to the nature of the surgery performed. But I think that maybe, just maybe I’ve found a solution to one of them; contact with water. It makes bathing annoying, showering very frustrating and so far, use of the hot tub, which would help with the shoulder issues, completely out of the question. The frustration with showering and bathing is that the forearm skin graft that must be protected from shampoos and soaps, and kept reasonable dry while showering. It can be done with or … Continue reading Just a hint…
Feeling good this morning…
I’m feeling pretty good about things this morning… in spite of the kicking that my guts are taking from the c. Diff. Gail re-did the dressing on my ‘forearm flap’ and it looks really good, relatively speaking. I’m including a photo here of the site on the day the dressing first got changed. This is NOT the way it looks today. We were still in hospital. You can see the area that they took from the forearm to rebuild the back of my throat where they excavated for the tumour. You will also notice the long line where they removed … Continue reading Feeling good this morning…