Friday, July 10, 2009

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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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you are on the mend! I bet it will be nice to get home to rest and heal! I bet everyone misses you!

Ishmael said...

Huh. So they made a gaping hole in your protective skin.... while you were in a dirty hospital.....Weird.

I sure hope you recover well from all this!

xo
Ish

AussieAlaskan said...

I like your sense of humour and positive attitude - keep going!

Anonymous said...

Pleased to hear that you and your camera will be heading back home soon. I am sure you will heal much faster in Kotzebue with all your family and friends. Get well soon.
Keith

Kathy said...

Happy news you are out of the hospital! May you heal real fast! Good luck with all of the cleaning
procedures on your knee!
Kathy (aka Birdingrvers.com)

the california guy said...

Now you can send pictures of Alaska instead of body parts! Isn't God's healing ability great!

Amy said...

I'll bet you are SO happy to be out of there! Glad you get to go home!

Tracy said...

I wasn't as grossed out as much as it sounds painful! Doesn't it hurt to be repacking an open "wound"?? Hope you have some good pain kilers. LOL

Becky said...

I'm sooo thankful you've been discharged and are on the road to recovery...even if packing an open would does give me the willies.

You are a brave woman.

Christine said...

I bet you are relieved to be out of there. I'm glad your knee surgeon took special care to be the one operating on your knee - a doc who cares is always an awesome thing. Wishing you a speedy recovery, for sure.

Trish said...

I had to scroll past it very quickly to get to the comments!!!!!!

GROSS.....

Glad you're out, see you soon.

Anji Gallanos said...

ohhhh Cathy...i am thinking of you traveling on the plane...will you get special seating??? ugghhh what pain. I am really sorry...if it's any consolation even you knee photos are great..your a great photographer :)

anji

Arvay said...

Good news!

"for those of you who like gory photos" hahahahaha

CabinDweller said...

Yay for you! Glad you got out without any crazy MRSA related damage. You did, right?

don said...

Congratulations on your release! I'm glad they were able to resolve your infection. Keep up the great work on your blog. You have responses from all over the world, including places in Africa and Asia. I guess this is an example of a Tantrum getting attenion ; - )

It will probably me warm when you arrive back in Kotzebue. It was 73degrees in Barrow yesterday. Some inland locations near you just might reach 80 degrees. I hope you enjoy the scenery of your flight.

Anonymous said...

Glad you are discharged and hopefully on the way home. Lots of prayers from Florida have been sent you way.

Patsy

Jumpa said...

Linsey here. These things can take a long time to heal. Post op is the hard part. Let it heal and keep your diet in good order. Infection is not a thing to mess with. good strong alaska leg.