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I just thought I'd pass on the (hopefully continuing) good news regarding my health. While far from completely healed, my ankle wounds (three open wounds that have refused to heal for almost two years now) have finally started to show some sign of improvement. My skin tissue has finally started to granulate and at least one of the wounds has closed by over 50%. They're still not to the point where I'm off 24/7 bedrest but at least they're getting smaller.
My pain level is down by immense proportions. This time last year, my ankles felt like I was having a hot clothes iron pressed against my skin every second of the day. Now, with the rare exception of some aching, I'm almost pain-free. Last August, I required painkillers 24 hours a day just to tolerate the pain. As recently as March, I was getting about 15 minutes of sleep a day which was the best I could manage on account of the pain. Now, aside from a couple Advil and the occassional Darvocet to offset the walking and OOB (Out-Of-Bed, just thought I'd toss out the pun on the ol' OOC term) time I have to do on my weekly trip to the hospital, I'm moving toward being pill-free (well, I still take the blood pressure medication which is probably partially responsible for aiding the healing) and sleeping my normal 2-4 hours a day (I'm an insomniac).
Of course, Wednesdays are my pain-filled day since that's my weekly doctor's appointment at the hospital to examine my ankles. However, thanks to the new dressing they started using a few months ago, that process is far less painful as well. This time last year I was routinely passing out from the pain of removing my bandages, a process which would take as much as two hours of soaking per foot just to loosen them enough to attempt to remove them from my skin, this due to the dried blood, wound-drainage, and tissue sticking to the dressings. Now, on account of the use of mepilex transfer bandages, they come off in seconds with little or no soreness, much less enough pain to knock me unconscious (even while maxing out on painkillers and having them numb the tissue before removal).
My doctor won't give me a timetable for healing, but I hope I'll be fully-healed in time to begin looking for a teaching job again. After more than 22 straight monthes of this problem, it'd be nice to see money come in instead of going out to pay medical bills (at an average rate of $500 a week not counting another $150,000 in failed surgery attempts).
I realize a few of you couldn't give a damn (and even one or two of you were so nice as to tell me in no uncertain terms you were happy I was having medical problems...all my love to you too, assholes), but for those of you who did express the hope that my health would improve, I just wanted to let you know how I'm doing and to say that I thank you once again for your well-wishes.
Take care,
Jason
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