ROBOWIFE?

Another week, another trip to the wound clinic.

For the past few days, Kitty's been getting antsy.  After all, we are smack dab in the middle of winter which means spring will be around sooner or later, which then means it will soon be time for spring cleaning -- at least it will be time for spring cleaning for ordinary people.  My bride is anything but ordinary.  Her super power is wanting to get things done now.  So Kitty has been wandering around the house (on her walker), looking at what needs to be done, and actually doing it.  Which is just swell.  Not really.  Actually what is just swelling is her leg because of all her moving around.

At the wound clinic, the doctor was pleased at Kitty's progress, but not as pleased with the swelling.  So, for the next week or so, Kitty is going to be a couch potato and keep her leg elevated.  (Mental conversation to myself:  "Yeah.  Like that's going to work.")  The doctor told her to not stand or sit for more than a half hour at a time.  (Mental conversation continuing:  "S-u-u-u-r-r-r-e-e-e.")  Doesn't the doctor know that there is nothing decent on television?  Doesn't the doctor know that my wife, who is normally a voracious reader, has not been able to concentrate on a book since her operation?  Doesn't the doctor know that the ceiling above our couch is extemely boring?  No, the doctor does not know.  What the doctor does know is how to heal wounds, so we will be listening to her and obeying her instructions, though I may need duct tape to keep Kitty lying flat on the couch.

The other big thing is that the wound dressing will be altered.  Kitty won't have to change the dressing daily by herself.  Beginning Thursday, they'll be switching to something called a vac dressing.  That's just what it sound like -- a vacuum cleaner-like device placed in the divot in her leg.  This will do a more efficient job in handling the drainage.  The suction will also allow blood vessels to rise closer to the surface and speed up the healing.  The dressing will be done by a visiting nurse on Thursdays and Saturdays and by the wound clinic on Tuesdays.  The device is evidently rechargable and portable (about the size of Kitty's little pink Vera Bradley pocketbook, they said).  We need something like this to make life a tad more interesting, methinks.

That's the update.  Things are going well -- very well, in fact.  The doctors have been great and are focused on the quickest and best possible outcome.  We are a bit apprehensive about the vac dressing, but that's only because it's something completely new to us; come Thursday, when they actually deliver the device and change Kitty's dressing, those anxieties will disappear and she can continue to concentrate on healing.

She may grumble about her new couch potato status and about all the foofarah involved in healing, but we also saw some of the other patients at the wound clinic today.  It made us realize how much better off Kitty is compared to some of those other patients.  Things could be much, much worse.  It also made us realize how lucky we are to have access to this level of medical care and how amazing that medical care really is.