[nfb-talk] Update on cancer

[T. Joseph Carter]

Dar,

I've got one of the largest families a person can have, since it 
includes the entire NFB!  *smile*  That's a great support in times 
like these.

The way the incision site is closed is pretty interesting.  The very 
squeamish might want to forego reading the rest of this email, though 
I will try to be gentle in my description.  *grin*

Basically, since they cut out such a very large chunk of Joseph, I 
have a very long incision site.  They couldn't just sew it shut and 
walk away because there would be too much fluid building up inside 
the wound for proper healing.  So what they did was sew up the ends, 
and leave the middle part open.

Into the middle part, they put this sponge.  That's covered over with 
this plastic material, creating an air tight seal.  Over the top of 
the sponge there's a tube that comes out of the plastic seal, and 
that goes to a machine that pulls a vacuum to drain the fluid.  It's 
a pretty cool setup.

The downside is that this dressing needs to be changed two or three 
times a week.  There is a nerve near the edge of the incision site, 
so the only word that can describe a dressing change is pain, though 
that seems so inadequate a word!  The first change, which is always 
the worst, was the most excruciatingly painful thing I've ever felt, 
despite 15mg of oxycodone AND 1mg of hydromorphone.  They could have 
gassed me to do it, but then my body would not have begun to learn to 
tolerate the vac dressing changes and the second change would've been 
almost as bad as the first.

The second dressing change went much more quickly, though I did not 
have the hydromorphone and it was almost as painful as the first.  
The third was done yesterday by a home health nurse who does a lot of 
these things, and blessedly the trend is continuing—this one was 
almost bearable on 15mg.

Visually speaking, it looks as though I'm now equipped with a reddish 
zipper.  In the center of the zipper, it looks as though someone 
filled a pothole with some tar (that's the sponge, compressed by the 
vac).  I've since seen a picture of it up close since being given 
that description, and I have got to say that my godmother did a 
fantastic job describing it that way.

Again, thanks for all the prayers and support!

Joseph


On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 11:11:57PM -0400, d m gina wrote:
>Hi there,
>I am glad they found that you are OK over all.
>I hope they can get this closed and you will be OK.
>We are here for you when you feel you can write.
>This is one thing about using a computer, so many persons are out 
>there different times of the day and threw out the night.
>You are never alone.
>Blessings always,
>
>-- 
>--Dar
>skype: dmgina23
> FB: dmgina
>www.twitter.com/dmgina
>every saint has a past
>every sinner has a future
>
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