Today I went to the Dr.... but he wasn't home.

Today was my one week check back appointment to visit with the Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Lipshits. Lippy to his friends.  But he stood me up.  He was tied up in an emergency surgery. So i had to work with Allison.  She's young and pretty and hurts my leg very much.  Today she enjoyed 'debriding' the old dead skin.   She really does enjoy this.  [Debride: To remove dead, contaminated, or adherent tissue and/or foreign material. To debride a wound is to remove all materials that may promote infection and impede healing.]  Allison enjoys 'picking at it' and cutting off the dead part. Grabbing the skin, fat, old dead 'stuff' and pulling on it with surgical tweezers.  She pulls on it, then cuts it off with a scalpel. She also has a tool that looks like an 8" tiny ice cream scoop.  She drags this across the raw flesh to scrape away any loose stuff.  So i go in to their office with no pain and she proceeds to wind me up tight with a bloody mess of horror.  She says the leg looks good.  But it needs to have any dead spots removed so new stuff can grow.  I understand, i just dont like it.  They use a liquid Lidocaine to numb the wound and later after i 'complained' they gave me a shot, a local anesthetic.  ("Allison i think i'm feeling a mild discomfort where you are cutting my skin."  Allison, 'Oh can you feel this?')

The worst part was the measure of the perimeter.  She took the (circled in yellow above) cotton swab and jammed the handle end up under the skin of the wound.  Then she ran it around the edge sticking it as far up under the skin as she could go.  Held it with her thumb and forefinger, then pulled it out and measured it.  I was wiggling like a snake.  Holding on - white knuckled - and squirming.

Great News, they have rescheduled my appt with Dr. Lipshits for next Tuesday at 8:15am and 'he's not as gentle as Allison.'  (are Tequila shots OK before going to the Dr?)  I'm NOT looking forward to that visit.  Not at all.

I got a comment via an email:
l was listening to a podcast about the effects of war on soldiers and they got to talking about the value of maggots on wounds like yours - maybe suggest this to your next doctor as an avenue of treatment.  Maggots + Skin graft = Healing.           - Buzzy

Great Comment Buzzy.  I asked Allison today, between clinched teeth, what she thought about using maggots on my leg.  She said it was a good idea, but unfortunately they dont use them at this wound care clinic.  Plus you have to always find them and get them out of the wound.  "Put in 5 and you gotta find 5."  She further said they have changed the style to 'tea bags.'  Where the maggots are enclosed in a bag, like a wire mesh, where they can eat the dead flesh but not escape confinement. Then she stopped scraping my bloody raw flesh for a second and looked at the wound and said, "four."  "Your wound would need four teabags to cover it."   Buzzy - where do they find sterile maggots?  Just curious.


"I always liked picking at things.  Skip, i think it will be a minimum of 3 months in wound care."

- Physicians Assistant, Allison

I'm going to bed now.  It's been a tough day!          

-Peg Leg Captain Skip