Wound Care Adventures!

Hi Everybody!

Hoping all of you are doing well these days! I just had to go over my last entry to figure out where I left off! If I don't blog when these things happen, I'll forget and who has time to blog during the week? Not me!

So I'm generalizing when I say that last week Monday during wound care - as Dr. Larkin was removing the dressing on my facial wound, I had a bleed. She and the nurse that was helping caught it right away and put pressure on there until we could get the surgicel! So she continues on with removing the old dressing she had been working on, and I have another bleed! Yikes! More surgicel! Managed to get the wound area cleaned and redressed. Dr. Larkin asked about my next appt. w/Dr. Zane (ENT) and got it moved up a week for me! We needed him to get my ear cleaned up from drainage and scabbing.

Anyway, went back to wound care on Wednesday and this time my favorite RN, Noel was helping Dr. Larkin remove my dressing. Would you believe I had another bleed? This time from my ear. Got some surgicel put on that area - it was along the outside lower edge of my ear. I used to leave work @ 4pm to make a 4:30 wound care appt. - and they would be done about 6pm and I'd head home! Now, since I've had these bleeds, Dr. Larkin wants to make sure there is always a doctor around, so she's moved my appts. to 11am - that means I have to leave work @ 10:30 am to make that appt. and am lucky to get back to work by 1pm or 1:30pm! I hate to miss that much work, but there is no way around it! I am fortunate that my supervisor Mr. Rios is being very understanding and working with me by letting me go to these appts. and letting me work through my lunch hour to make up some time!

Celia voluteered to come with me on my Friday wound care appt. and I'm so glad she did! It makes a big difference having someone there with you for support! I introduced her to some of my favorite peeps there - Eric, that takes my vitals, Carol is an RN and has redressed my wound. She told Celia, "We love your sister here"! I was fortunate enough to have Noel be the RN to take care of me for Fridays visit. As he was changing my dressing, he had looked away to get something he needed off the medical tray and I had a bleed. Fortunately, it was not arterial, it was from a vein, so it was flowing, but not shooting out! Not a problem and Noel remained completely calm! Celia wanted to give him a standing ovation when Noel finished redressing my wound, for the outstanding job he did! Whew! We were happy - it was finally the weekend!

Saturday was my mom Mary's 74th Birthday! (See photo) Hanz was bathed, so he could smell all nice and sweet for Grandma! Oh we had so much fun! Celia picked up some BBQ for everyone and we all met @ moms to celebrate! Hadn't seen my nephew Mark in a while, so it was great seeing him! I was worried about him bringing his dog, Hula - thinking she would trample over my little Hanz! No, soon as Hula was brought in to moms back yard, Hanz completely took over chasing Hula all over the yard! They were hilarious! Hanz doesn't realize he is a little dog, and had the best time playing with Hula! We all ate and had Key Lime Pie for dessert from Red Lobster! We all played Mexican Train and guess who won? ME!

Early this morning, about 7am and we were still in bed, I felt my neck thinking I was bleeding. I turned my bedside lamp on, yup! I woke Mark up and headed to the kitchen sink to removed my dressing from my face to figure out where I was bleeding from! It was the wound on my face - it was arterial, but it was a thin stream of blood shooting out - not like that time that I had so much coming out! Ugh! We were not happy having to get up so early and to be woken up like that! It was hard finding the exact area to put pressure to control the bleeding. Mark had to get my pillow cases (the regular one, the allergen cover one, plus the one that also covers the pillow because it's one of those contured egg crate pillows) and the twin size allergen cover I have over all my pillows (because there are 2 or 3 big pillows we stack to get me to the right angle and height for me to sleep). All of those had to go in the wash.

We waited a while after getting the bleeding under control to redress the wound. After we did, we lay down for a much, much needed nap! I slept almost 5 hours! I needed that badly! I used to always try and make time for a nap on Sundays to recharge my battery before our week started! Some of my meds make me so drowsy too! Since we've gotten Prince Hanz - our naps have pretty much gone out the window! Hanz is just too cute and I hate leaving him alone for too long, so I deprive myself of that nap. Oh well. I keep hoping that one of these days when he is completely potty trained, that we can bring him into the bedroom sometimes and maybe he can take a nap with us! Mark won't have any part of that though, so it isn't looking like Hanz and I will nap together.

For all of you that always say I'm so brave and strong to handle all of this I'm going through - take a good look at my mother. She is the pillar of strength that raised us on her own and many a time when life was not good ... she held her head up and kept on going! I have learned from her example and do the best I can and I have all of you helping me as well! I have terrific co-workers, (some that don't even work in my department!) that take the time to ask how I am and really seem interested in hearing about it! So many of your prayers are helping me through this rough time! I ran into little Jackie Hallmark @ Spohn when I was done w/my wound care on Friday. She gave me a big hug and told me I was in her prayers. Even some of the clerks @ our local grocery store, have taken the time to read my blog and post a comment!

I look forward to hearing from Shalon soon - she just got back yesterday from an embolization in CO! Check out her blog in the next few days to hear about her trip! Got a nice e-mail from Jody - Arie's mom saying how much she enjoys my blog! Had a co-worker tell me not long ago, that in the ten years she's known me, I was always so private - why the blog now w/photos and a lot of personal things? I told her I wanted other AVM patients to be able to read it and know they are not alone out there. Plus, I also wanted people who don't know what all an AVM entails, to be able to understand what Mark and I have to deal with on a daily basis! This has brought our entire family even closer. Like I've said before - my sister and I didn't grow up being best friends - but she has really come through for me during this difficult time! She is strong for me to lean on and helps us in so many ways! Right now she has a lot to deal with - her mother-in-law is very ill and in the hospital in Houston, so Celia is concerned for her husband so much right now! Plus of course her kids - one away in college and her other son here in town.

My in-laws always keep in close communication, as does my brother-in-law Jim and his wife Shelley - thank you! We'll try and get together soon! Hard to come up w/a time when one of us isn't working, or that I'm not in pain or bleeding. Ugh!

Oh! Before I forget - I want to send a big shout out to Dr. Zane!!! I had an appt. w/him on Thursday @ 1pm. Well, right before going out there, I was @ work and I picked inside my left ear! I could feel what I thought was a scab or maybe some of the dressing that had hardened. I picked it and here comes the blood! Right away I could feel my ear fill up w/blood! I didn't know exactly where to put pressure on there to stop the bleeding! I wondered if the surgicel that had been put on my ear Wednesday had come off, or was it bleeding where I picked it or what? I had a mirror on my bulletin board that I was looking into and finally called out to my co-worker Kathy that had her back to me eating her lunch. She got up and got me more napkins so I could put them up to my ear where I was still bleeding. Got my cell phone from my pants pocket and called Mark. Told him what was going on in case I needed him to come help! Told him to wait, that I would try and stop the bleeding on my own first. Called to Wound Care, and I asked Dr. Larkin whether I could come in for them to redress the area! She said I would not be turned away if I showed up - but she would rather I go to the ER or to see Dr. Zane! Meanwhile, I'm still bleeding - but finally got it to stop! Went on to see Dr. Zane and he got my ear all cleaned up from prior drainage and got rid of some of the scabbing on that little "flap" above the earlobe! I could see everything he was doing on a screen where I watched as Dr. Zane also got rid of some old, dead tissue still in my ear. He started some bleeding @ one point, but got that cauterized (OUCH!!) and it stopped! Cleaned out my t-tube that was still in there and really did some great debriding! He is awesome! I'm just glad nothing he saw or did freaked him out! I had been trying to cheer myself up earlier by showing one of his nurses/techs a photo of our little Hanz, and she said Dr. Zane had a puppy like ours too! She told me to make sure I asked Dr. Zane about it and sure enough! He and his wife have a 3 year old female Brussels Griffon! He told me to come over to another area, where he had several photos of her on a bulletin board. One was of her w/her hind feet on a chair and her front paws on the table and she was looking @ the camera and wearing a pink party hat! She was just precious! Glad to know we won't be the only ones spoiling our puppy! That photo was taken on her 3rd birthday! Maybe out pets can have a play date some time! That little Hanz is such a doll - he is exactly what I've needed to get through these difficult times!

Again, thank you everyone for all your love and support! I'll keep updating my blog and filling y'all in on the latest!

Cyndi Schuman