Friday Update...Discharged!

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Today I was released from the hospital. I was there for seven days, almost exactly from the time I was admitted.

I had the MRI on Monday but the radiologist never read it (at least to my knowledge) until Tuesday evening. After the Doctors read the MRI they contacted my knee surgeon, Dr. McGuire. On Wednesday morning they told me that I would be having surgery "sometime" that day. Later in the afternoon Dr McGuire and his nurse Kris came to the hospital to see me. After examining the abscess on my knee Dr. McGuire told the Providence Doctors that he would prefer to do the surgery himself. He is kind of protective of his knee patients and didn't want strange doctors digging around my knee and mucking things up.

So on Wednesday evening I had surgery to drain and clean a fairly large abscess on my knee. Because it was so large they packed it with gauze and left it open. It will have to heal from the inside out. I will have to unpack and then repack the wound with gauze every other day until it heals, which could take 3 to 4 weeks. This morning they changed the gauze and dressings and then discharged me around 5pm. I will stay here in Anchorage until Monday morning when I will go see Dr. McGuire to have the dressing changed and make sure everything is still good. Then I will head home to Kotzebue on the evening flight.

I just wanted to than everyone for their prayers and well wishes. I appreciated every one of them.

And now for those of you who like gory photos here is a photo of my knee with the gauze sticking out. Don't look if you are grossed out by that sort of thing
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