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| Nurse Jon at work |
When we left Kennewick in late
December, I was told the infection on the middle toe on my left foot
was cured, and there was no infection in my right big toe, but that
we should check in periodically with a wound care center to they
could look at it and cut away the dead skin. Something happened in
the month it took us to get to Yuma' the infected area on my big toe
grew and the bone in the middle toe got infected.
Coming down, the best I could do was go
to a walk-in clinic where the doctor said she wasn't a wound expert,
but did prescribe antibiotics. I'd tried two wound centers along the
way but they weren't interested in seeing anyone on a one-shot basis.
The bone infection, called
osteomylitis, is being treated by the medical community here. Curing
a bone infection is hard work. We must make two 25-mile round trips a
day to the Yuma hospital for IV antibiotic treatments. Because of
traffic, it takes about 35-40 minutes one-way. The 8 a.m. session is
the longest, about 90 minutes, because they drip two antibiotics into
me; only one is used at the 5 p.m. session. This is seven days a week
for six to eight weeks, because that's how long it takes for new bone
to grow. If the infection responds well to the treatment, they may
reduce it to one treatment a day. The alternative is to have my toe
amputated, something I'm not too keen on having done.
In addition to this, Jon must medicate
and bandage my toes twice a day. He is getting very good at this, so
good it looks almost as professional as what the wound care nurses do
at my weekly appointments.
Moral of this story: Keep that damn cholesterol under control High cholesterol leads to poor circulation in your feet. Poor circulation in your feet means infections in your feet won't heal properly.
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