Meeting the Waste of Time

I feel that the wound was already infected before that one nurse decided to put the different dressing on and that by no one seeing it for a few days it allowed the infection to fester. Leaving me with a huge wound that had actually turned black.

As I had been instructed, I went to the wound care center the following week so that I could begin seeing the doctor that was supposedly going to heal the wound. The doctor came into the exam room and before she had even really introduced herself to me she began working on the wound, continuing to cut away the dead tissue. Her failure to introduce herself was the event that set off the first alarm bell in my head. While I understand that doctors are busy people I do not feel that it is in any way appropriate for a doctor not to take the thirty seconds and introduce themselves to a new patient.

While the doctor was lookiing at the wound is when she started asking questions regarding how long I had had the wound and what we were doing for it. I answered her questions and then was sent for an x-ray to make sure the infection hadn't spread into the bone. While I was waiting for the x-ray I was hoping that it hadn't progressed that deeply but something in my head told me different. The x-rays were inconclusive, which meant that she couldn't tell if bone was involved or not. If bone were involved without us knowing it would have been disastrous. Being that she was unable to tell through x-rays that meant she would have to bring me to the Operating Room to find out.

The surgery was scheduled for a few days later. I was admitted to the hospital the day before my surgery was to take place. During that time I saw a wound care nurse that suggested that something called a Wound Vac be put on the wound. When she first told me that I was sort of shocked, 'I'm sorry you want to hook me up to a machine and let the machine make it better,' I thought. Instead of panicking at that point, my somewhat of a nerd brain took over and I started asking for literature about this 'Vac' that they wanted to hook me up to. The wound care nurse gave me a large binder with a ton of information in it. When a family member came in to visit me later that afternoon he found me studying. After I had finished reading all of the literature I was all but certain that while this device may not be the most pleasant of experiences that it would probably be effective. At this point the little voice in my head that had been telling me that this doctor may not be a good match for me got louder. I requested a second opinion from a doctor that I trusted and had seen previously for various issues.

When he came in and looked at the wound he told me that yes surgery was going to be what I should do. Surprisingly I was okay with that answer. That is when I asked him if he would do it instead of 'my surgeon'. He said no, that he wasn't really into wound care and that I should stick to the surgeon I was already working with. I agreed, though somewhat hesitantly.