Monday, July 28, 2008

Home and doing well - except for that darn foot!

The pacemaker seems to be something that Ron's body needed. He's had more energy, better color, and a better appetite since coming home. Yesterday he said he was hungry all day and grazed in the kitchen. LOL - he's gained about eight pounds since last Thursday (and it's only Monday) and he is sure it's not from fluid retention. I told him that his grazing days are over and he had to be on more of a schedule for meals and snacks - not an all day gorge-a-thon.

We went back to see Dr. Heady today and he was disappointed in the foot. There was a dead patch where new skin had been just two short weeks ago. Very disappointing for us all to see that we've gone backwards instead of ahead. The good news is the deep tunnel seems to have closed in so we're hoping that this new problem is more surface than anything. He did tell Ron that he may be headed back to the OR for more debridement if what he did in the office today doesn't help.

He did so much cutting on the foot today in the office (with no anesthesia - thank goodness Ron doesn't have any feeling in his foot) that he had to cauterize more than one place that would not quit bleeding. He bled profusely all over the place - the pad, the floor, through two different pressure bandages - before Dr. Heady decided he needed to cauterize it. Took two tries to get it all taken care of.

Wednesday we'll see Dr. Peterie. That will be the first time since he OK'd Ron having Vancomycin. We're going to have a conversation regarding that decision...

We ended up purchasing a new scooter for Ron today. It's quite a bit heavier and holds up to 300 pounds (instead of the 250 his current one holds). Ron's weight fluctuates a lot so the 250 weight limit was not good enough. Right now he's at 264. This scooter was $1990 (and they marked it down from $2225 because I was going to purchase online). It was less expensive online but local repair if it breaks down is worth the extra instead of having to send it off for repair. His other scooter and this one are both made by Pride. The first one has held up very well so hopefully this one will also. We're going to sell the first one to Ron's daughter for $500. That's a very good deal for her as the new ones of this model are $2100. We paid $1100 for it in 2006, so we're doing OK on it.

Insurance won't pay any on this since they paid on the first one. It's only one per lifetime unless extenuating circumstances warrant an additional purchase, and that's usually only after several years and the first one is no longer repairable.

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