6 Days Later

Warning this entry contains one graphic picture of Pop's wound!!!!!!!!
Pop came home from the hospital today. Six days and one operation later. On Wednesday, the doctors decided to open the old incision site and clean out the infection. They used a twilight anesthesia and the operation took about an hour and a half. When I got up to Pop's room , he was sitting on the edge of the bed eating his lunch, a large bandage on his left forearm. he was still on intravenous antibiotics every six hours. By Thursday, they decided the wound looked good enough for Pop to start oral antibiotics and to possibly go home on Friday. This morning Emilie and I were at the gym by 9:30am. We put in our hour, I went home showered,dressed and was at the hospital by 11am. The wheelchair came promptly by 11:30. (Chris and I had made Pop order lunch, just in case there was a delay in releasing him)
First order of business: go to Loukas Diner in Branchburg for lunch, then to drug store, home, and light a cigarette aaahhh! Chris had witnessed the changing of Pop's dressing so she had first honors today. I photographed it for posterity!

Don't gag! This looks 100 times better than it did on Wednesday. Why did we photograph it.......to document the healing and so we could note changes,etc.

Christine would have made a fine nurse ( there was no gagging, crying or screaming from either of them)

Smile! I'm taking pictures here!

All done! What a beautiful wrap job! Now, healing time is estimated at about three to four weeks with a new dressing every day. That totals............. well, I'll have to post dressing directions later so that we can get an accurate count of supplies used for the next four weeks.(I'll include gas mileage)

This was six days of intense Pop time and I realized again what a precious human being he is. His corny jokes, his blistering tongue lashings, his I can do it myself,goddammit attitude, Caro and I getting kicked out because we were making too much noise playing KISMET with Pop after visiting hours were over, Chris and I having to leave the room because we couldn't stop laughing about the trailer home guy and his wife. Talk about turning a sows ear into a silk purse. The good news is that we get to keep Pop longer!