HOPALONG HOUSE AND THE GIANT BLACK MAMBA

Time for another update on my bride.

When we last left Kitty, our stalwart heroine had just had her first visit to the wound center, where they had cleaned, debrided, scraped, and left a large divot in her leg to aid the healing of her surgery, and had given her detailed instructions on how to change her dressing daily.

I believe I have mentioned that both of us can get a little queasy.  Kitty -- being far wiser than I will ever be -- rightly decided that I am the bigger wuss and has banned me from being anywhere around while she changes the dressing, let alone let help or do it for her.  (She mentioned something about my vomiting on the wound would probably not help the healing process.)  So, for the past week or so she has been flushing out the wound, applying all the strange and wonderful wound-fixing stuff (I believe that's an actual medical term), and putting on new dressings.  As one might expect, during all those times the nagging thought of "Am I doing this right?" kept dancing around in her head.

This past Tuesday, we went back to the wound center and, voila!, she certainly had been doing it right.  Not only is the wound slowly (and properly) healing, but the swelling has reduced considerably.  The doctor was mightily pleased, as were we.

At the bottom of the divot in her leg, however, was something the  doctor called a "blue stitch," which was a subcutaneous suture the surgeons had placed there when repairing her leg.  This blue stitch (the wound doctor told us) could become a possible source of infection and impair the healing process.  So she asked Kitty to ask the surgeon if it could now be removed and, if so, she would remove the stitch when she sees us again next Tuesday.

The next day we had a follow-up appointment with the surgeon and he was mightliy pleased with Kitty's progress and with the work the wound clinic is doing.  We asked about the blue stitch and he said he could take it out for us, which he did.  (Neither of us watched him do this because of the wuss/queasiness factor.)  The blue stitch did not look blue to us.  It was black and mean and ugly and it was big.  At first it looked as if he had taken a giant black mamba out of Kitty's body.  (Yeah, that's an exaggeration, but it seemed pretty close to the truth at the time.)  Actually, the main stitch was about three inches long.  Yuck.

Anyway, Kitty's coming along nicely.  We next see the wound clinic doctor on Tuesday and the surgeon in about a month.

This week, Kitty has also reduced the number of pain pills she is taking.  She had been taking only about half of the maximum recommended dosage and she's now cut that by another half.  The blood thinner she's taking seems to be on target also, with none of the bruising or bleeding they have been monitoring her for.  For the first time  since the operation, she has been able to sleep part of the night on her side rather than flat on her back -- another good signand a small win.  She still tires easily and rests a lot, but she is moving about more, which is good, although it does temporarily increase the swelling in her leg.  And sometimes it feels as if her new knee wants to bend the wrong way and Kitty then has to give the knee a lecture.

The one worrying sign is that for the past two days she has twice gotten up and, without thinking, began walking without a walker or a cane -- something for which she is not yet ready.  She's caught herself both times before going too far (thank goodness) and has had me bring her the walker.   She is still too unsteady to go and do something cocky like that.  She has to consciously remind herself not to get ahead of the healing process.

Our mantra -- without setting any specific goals -- has been "by the end of March."  By that time the warm weather will be here again and she should be doing super-great.

Throughout this whole painful process, she continously amazes me with her determination and courage.  Just another reason for me to want to keep kissing her.