I spent that week continuing to do what we had been doing. We were packing the wound with the calcium alginate, and then just putting a dry dressing on top. Knowing by then, not a whole lot of the healing process would be effected by anything. While, I was unhappy that we seemed to just be wasting time I tried to wait patiently for the appointment with the surgeon.
The day of my appointment with the surgeon I went into it positive that something good HAD to come from it. I was done with seeing people that were just wasting my time, and I swore that if I even got any inkling of a clue not to trust the surgeon that I would not continue to see him as I had done with the first surgeon.
I went in and met with a nurse first and proceeded to give her the background information on the wound and then waited for the surgeon to come in and examine the wound. When he came in and did the examination he said that yes he agreed that the edges did need to be removed. During the exam he also took a culture and a tissue sample from the wound to make sure nothing was going on beyond what we could see, that was preventing the wound from healing. I was told to go back to see him the following week so that we could discuss the test results and the options I had.
I left the appointment and called a family member to tell her how the appointment had gone. This was the same family member that I had called after the initial surgical appointment two years earlier. She said that I sounded more upbeat and positive about the situation than she had heard me in a very long time. She was right, I was positive that things would start going in a much better direction. I have no idea why I thought that, other than to say I had an incredibly good feeling about the wound care center and the surgeon.
When I went back a week later the surgeon explained to me that the cultures did show an infection but nothing that would have prevented the wound from closing. He prescribed the same Bactroban cream that I had been on previously to treat the infection. He also said that surgery was necessary to get the edges of the wound off and asked me when I was thinking I would like to have it. Being that I had been living with this wound for over two years with virtually no change, I had decided that I was going to go to a baseball game three weeks later and so I asked if it could be after the game. I was told that that was fine, and that it was probably the soonest it would be able to be scheduled anyway, so to go and enjoy the game. I was told to call later and schedule the appointment and that being that it was going to be a few weeks away to call and schedule a regular appointment with him as well sometime between then and whenever I chose to have the surgery.
I called and scheduled the surgery for the day after I would attend the baseball game. I went back to see him about two weeks later to discuss the surgery more in depth, and so he could check the wound to see how it was doing. When he looked at the wound he did not notice much of a change, which while being somewhat disappointing was not really a surprise. He then went on to explain that during the surgery he was going to remove the thick rolled edges of the wound, he also said that he felt he may be able to just surgically close the wound at the same time. That was somewhat surprising yet I thought that it would be awesome if that were actually the case.
When I got home and explained to friends and family what was going on they were all excited that I seemed to have finally found a surgeon that made sense to me and that I felt I could communicate with. While I was super excited about the possibility that he may be able to close the wound it was not something that I allowed myself to really focus on, purely so that I was not disappointed if that were not the case.
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