I'm just about ready to leave work, but I've decided to try something in my blog.  I'm going to do regular updates still, but there will be a short daily update on my adventures in Woundland, which I'm going to use to track what happens each day with the wound, the nursing visit, if changes are made to the way my dressing is done, what problems there were and when.  This is going to be my ammunition for my update with my surgeon.  It may be a single entry in my journal that I just keep updating, we'll see as we go.  Anyway, I try not to say anything that will make people too squeamish normally, but be forwarned that those versions of my update may be a little more detailed.  While I won't post them, I may take photos to go with my entries.  I do not want Dr. McLeod claiming it's impossible that my wound not gotten better or has gotten worse.

I'll save the rest of my update for when I get home, as I have to leave in a few minutes, but I will tell you what happened when I saw my boss tonight before he left.  He was like, saw your message, so it's not working.  I was like, just once I'd like not to be right.  He was like, well you know your body best.  I'm like yes, better than a doctor who hasn't spent more than 2 minutes with me every 6-8 weeks or more than 5 since my surgery January 18.  I told him I'd talked to the CCAC staff member who works out of Mt Sinai and told her what happened yesterday.  Her reaction "did you talk to your surgeon?"  I was like, that was my surgeon.  And that she said maybe I had good reason to dig in my heels.  Then I said to him "How dare she call my wound superficial!!!  If it's so superficial, let's put it on her and see how she deals with it!"  At that point he burst out laughing and couldn't stop, he just lost it, he laughed uncontrollably, nearly to the point of tears LOL.  I'm glad I can provide some comiic relief.  Just as I did last week when I got tangled up in my tubing at lunch and my coworker Alberto couldn't stop laughing at me!

The wound care nurse finally came today!  I was sooo happy to see her!  No one had told her Frances was away or she would have tried to come sooner.  Unfortunately she confirmed my thoughts about my wound and worse.  My wound is 5 x 6.5 cm, up from 5 x 6cm on July 20 and is no longer diamond shaped, she says it's grown at the top of the diamond.  Plus the area which she was burning off that she called a polyp, is now and open wound and she had to put a dressing in it .  I told her all the problems I'd had, and how fed up I was, and that I was concerned I would have to cancel yet another trip to Ottawa November 16 and was even scared to book my trip to Vegas for my 40th birthday in February.  She has finally said more about how long this might take to heal, after refusing to speculate for months.  She does not expect to to heal by the end of November with the wound vac and has indicated if I am taken off wound vac, I'll need to switch to daily dressing changes.  She also spoke the words I was scared to put in my blog yesterday, but had planned to ask my surgeon about,skin graft.  She has written a letter to my surgeon saying the wound isn't healing and I'm fed up and asking her to consider a skin graft.  I was both happy and sad/scared when she said it.  I think it's better the suggestion come from her rather than me, as Dr McLeod shot down anything other than wound vac when I was in hospital.  I was concerned she'd pull another glmpse and run out of the room without reading the letter, so I called her office and asked them if I could fax the letter and ask that she read it and have options/answers for me on Wednesday.  I also called the wound care nurse and explained it all to her.  I will NOT leave without answers on Wednesday, even if it means I have to ask for a referral to a plastic surgeon, or if I have to finally say I'm going to get a second opinion. 

I've been thinking about pursuing a skin graft for the last month, one of the nurses asked me if they'd mentioned it.  I need to know the pros and cons and what is involved, the risks and how long I would be off work.  The last thing I want is to be off work again, but I can't take much more of this.  The wound vac went ballistic at work.  I spent several hours trying to get a hold of the nurse to meet me back at my apt before I finally found the problem myself....the tubing came out of the part that fastens to my wound, a part that isn't supposed to come out!  I fixed it, but it happened again tonight.  When I figured it out I cancelled the nurse tonight as I didn't want an unfamilar nurse coming in.  I've asked they have Carol call me in the morning instead, just in case.

I talked to my boss for a bit today about it as I was kind of shaken up by the idea this might actually be something that's going to happen.  I told him about my concerns about work and stuff too, but he reassured me it was fine and that I was getting my work accomplished so I shouldn't put so much pressure on myself.  This afternoon was so hard though, the noise of the machine was disturbing to people around me and I was totally stressed out.  I kept working on my presentation, but didn't get quite as far as I'd hoped today.  I finally decided to go home and my cubicle mate Ike gave me a ride part of the way and I went out for a bit.  Again it ended badly, with the tubing coming apart again and a cab ride home that I didn't have enough cash for and hence had to pay a $10 credit card charge for a $6.75 fare.  Oh well.

I have a couple of meetings tomorrow, hoping for a good night's sleep without and wound vac problems.  I had planned to write something about the Ontario election today instead of just a wound vac update, but this was more important.

Please pray that my surgeon reads the letter and comes up with some options for me on Wednesday.  I can't take much more of this stupid machine, but I need to make sure any other solution such as a skin graph, is not exchanging one problem for another.  I have a feeling I'll have a lot of decisions to make this week, and I want to ensure that it's the right decision.

I got a surprise today.  Carol came and she had the type of dressing the hospital said I could use when I came off wound vac with her.  So she took me off the wound vac!!!  I'm not convinced the dressing she put on is going to hold for 5 days between my Monday and Friday visits but we will see.  I can already see the gauze is wet and the tape has gaped at the bottom and it's damp.   I think I can fix that though.  She has ordered everything I need and it will be delivered tomorrow.  I still find myself looking to eee where tubing is or pick up machine when I get up out of my chair LOL.  After 22 weeks, I'm free!!!!!!!!!   I just wish I had some idea of how many months I'll have to be on the regular dressings.

I didn't go to work on Wednesday as my tooth pain kept me up all night and I had to take a lot of pain meds still on Wednesday.  Not a good way to start my first day back.  Yesterday was great, but I got a surprise.  The software I suggested we use for my job has been approved, and we have to have the servers up and running by the end of next week.  Neither myself or the person doing the server work know how to use the software, so this will be a baptism by fire!  I am only free 8/12 hours I'm supposed to be at the office next week, so I may have to work longer hours those days and take Friday off.  We will see.  It was great to be back.  I managed to tangle my tubing both around my chair and in the wheels so I'm really, really glad I only had to work the one day with the wound vac attached!

I wanted to celebrate tonight, but my friends I had tentative plans with were not available.  Sunday afternoon my pogo league is having a special tournament - to celebrate my coming off the vac machine.  That will be fun.

Oh, and booked a hotel for the trip Susan, Andrea and I are taking to celebrate our 40th birthdays.  We are going to Vegas for the week of my birthday!!!!!  We will be there Feb 7 to 14 and my birthday is the Saturday night.  None of us are gamblers, we are going for the shows and well, I am going to take two tours by myself to indulge a childhood dream and my love of scenic photography.  I'm going to do one day trip to the Grand Canyon and one to Bryce Canyon which my aunt said she liked better.  The girls aren't into that stuff and they have been to the grand canyon, so I'll go by myself.  The weather isn't that great at that time of year, but doesn't matter, we will have fun no matter what!  I have already said I want to see O at the Bellagio and am waiting to see what else will be playing then as most shows only list dates til December.

I had my 2nd root canal appointment today.  It was horrible as the freezing didnt' take right away and I went ouch on several occasions.  It took 1.5 hours and he said he'd left himself more work than he thought.  I think he hadn't cleaned out the 4th root the first time - that is the only explanation I can think of for being in agony again.  After first appointment I was pain free for hours, this time the freezing wore off and I was in agony again by the time I finished what I ordered at McDonalds after my appointment.  Good thing I ate before the freezing wore off as I can't eat now.  It's worse than it ever was before .  They told me they renewed my prescription but I shouldn't need it.  I ended up calling a friend to pick me up and take me to get the prescription as I couldn't get home this way.  I am now back taking both tylenol # 3 and advil which just knocks me right out. 

I am supposed to go into work tomorrow, but if this pain keeps up I may not be able to leave the house as the pain meds make me too tired/loopy to trust myself on the bus.  I thought I'd get to go out shopping and then come home and do a little laundry and pack my emergency bag, but it's not going to happen right now.  I will wear what I have available and well, as long as I have my regular emergency supplies, I guess I'll just take a cab home if something happens that I can't deal with at work.  I'm only working 4 hours, I go out longer than that when I'm not working.  We will see.  I may sleep when the pain pills knock me out and get up early to finish getting ready.  I have a list, it's a matter of putting it together.

If I thought my root canal was bad timing, this second appointment is far worse in terms of timing.  And I still have to go back to the orginal dentist in a week or two for the final restoration of the tooth.  It's already cost me over $1500, who knows what he'll charge for the remaining work.  My advice is try never to need a root canal on a tooth with 4 roots!  The original dentist thought the very back molar was actually the one I should be complaining about, and I'm told I may still need a root canal on it, just not right now.  So I'm praying whatever abcess is there goes away without a root canal being necessary.

I have had a few minor issues with my dressing and my ostomy in the last number of days.  Oh and...

THE GREEN CAME BACK, THE VERY NEXT DAY

THE GREEN CAME BACK, THEY THOUGHT IT WAS A GONER

THE GREEN CAME BACK, IT  JUST COULDN'T STAY AWAY

Last week my skin problems got worse again, and some areas that were nearly healed turned green again plus a new area.  I was so upset, as I had told the nurse not to cover the areas that were nearly healed, she even read it in my chart, and yet she did and look what happened.  I figured Carol, the wound care nurse, would fix me up on Friday as we'd requested she come.  However, she didn't come and I had a new nurse yet again.  I was so upset and the dressing leaked within 1 hour of her leaving.  Fortunately I managed to fix it for a while and it finally gave up the ghost completely early early this morning. 

Carol is coming this Friday, and I may be taken off wound vac.  I would hope she'd leave me on it til she gets the new supplies in next week.  Taking me off it will prove interesting, especially when I'm working, as we really aren't sure if there will be leaks of fluid and if there are, I can't fix them without coming home.  I'm determined to go back to work though, so I just pray that everything will go well from now on.

My wound vac is beeping, need to plug it in to charge.  Bye for now.

I thought that might get your attention . If you read my last entry, you know I saw Faith Hill in concert on Tuesday night. Well, this is not about Faith's armpit hair, it's not really about her at all LOL. The title refers to expressing faith rather than the singer herself.

After Faith's solo performance, her husband Tim McGraw came back on stage and they did one song together. While I am not a big fan of Tim, having found a little Tim McGraw goes a long way, I love their duets and a few of his songs. At the end of the duet, I decided to make my escape to the washroom as I'd already heard the concert was 3 hours long. There were two women in the washroom discussing how great their seats were. One of them said to the other that someone, who I assume was the man in her life, would not believe the seats they have. Her explanation for how close the seats were was “We can see Tim's armpit hair.” I could hardly keep from laughing. I'm not sure what the attraction was of seeing armpit hair was, but it did describe the closest of their seats. I thought about this statement while I walked back to my seat which was not too shabby either. I was 7 rows from the stage on the floor level, and the stage jutted out in each direction so that Tim and Faith walked out into the crowd.

When I sat back down, I paid a little more attention to Tim. While many consider him very handsome, he doesn't do much for me. However, I couldn't help taking a longer look as he raised his arm. It was then I noticed the tattoo on the underside of his arm, just below his armpit. It was a very large fish symbol (see photo below), the one often worn by Christians as an expression of their faith. As I studied the tattoo, I couldn't help but think this was not exactly a good position for a tattoo, especially one that due to its meaning, he probably wanted it noticed. However, in a concert with 1000s of people hanging on his every word and admiring his great physique in his sleeveless shirt, perhaps it was where people would notice it most. After all, these women in the washroom described their seats by being able to see his underarms. While not a place that I would think of putting a tattoo if I had one, I am not a singer who is constantly wearing sleeveless shirts in front of large audiences and waving/raising my arms all the time. As I looked even more closely, I realized the tattoo on upper front of his other arm was a very large cross.

I know both Faith Hill and Tim McGraw have talked about their faith in interviews, but it is not mentioned in their shows. Perhaps because they are mainstream country performers, I'm not sure. However, they have found other ways to express it to people, including those who think it's great to be able to see Tim's armpit hair .

This photo was taken by someone who attended the concert the night before me.   It wasn't taken to show the tattoo, the caption she put was actually "He is a perfect specimen of what a man should be! Take notes guys, this is what every woman wants...every sane woman anyways."  LOL

I have more personal updates from this week, but I'll save them for tomorrow.  It's very late and I should really be in bed.