I woke up earlier than usual this morning because my new doona had wet spots from my wound leaking. Blech! Fortunately it seems to have not left anything visible. I felt really awful for the first couple of hours I was up, but my BGL was fine (that's the Random reading) and I wasn't running a temperature. Maybe it was just nerves over the whole vacuum procedure.
5.7 / 103 Bedtime 23:30:33
5.2 / 94 Fasting 07:45:38
5.3 / 95 Random 08:26:11
4.0 / 72 Pre-Lunch 13:51:19
9.2 / 166 Post-Tea 21:18:22
As I knew we'd be out until at least 2pm and I've had 2 or 3 times now where my BGL has been low after my clinic appts, this time I had a second light breakfast of the same thing (1 slice of crumpet toast with PB) at about 10:45 this morning. This seems to have worked as I was 'only' down to 4.0 by time we got home. As for the high reading for my tea tonight, well. We bought some lovely buns today, and I decided I wanted a 'Filet O' Fish' sandwich as part of my usual Fish & Chips. Now, I should have taken into account I was having a whole lot of extra carbs in the form of the bun and so not had as many (or any) chips (fries). I didn't even think about it. Then because I'm now on this machine, I sort of forgot to have my usual 2 cups of tea afterwards. Between the two, it really shows. So I've had a couple of cups of green tea and will check my reading again at 10:30 and make sure it's lower. Luckily because of having low readings the rest of the day it didn't mess up my averages for the day.
The appointment went well today. The first nurse I saw was the one who had liked my bookmark, and I had hers all made up. This one I made with embroidery thread (all 6 threads together) and the top and bottom had a neat pink star after the beads. She loved it and talked about the cool 'bling' and then came up with the idea it could be used as a wrap around a barrette for her hair too. Great idea. I'll have to make a few of those to sell.
The wound care specialist came in and this time I thought to ask if she belonged to a group and gave the name... she was a little surprised and said I sure am, I'm President! I smiled and said Hi, I'm your web host.
I'll be vacuum sealed for at LEAST two weeks, probably longer. However, this is supposed to cut down on healing time by at least 50% so better 2 or more weeks with this than 6-8 weeks otherwise.
It's basically a drain that's on the outside with a portable machine that keeps a constant negative pressure on the wound -- ie, a vacuum seal. This is a drain with the same type of tubes as I've had when I had my mastectomy and the reconstruction, but it's attached to this machine that collects the fluid and keeps a constant vacuum on the wound. The machine has a battery that can last up to a day, but it has to be plugged in at night when I go to bed to recharge. The vacuum is worn/used 24hrs a day and it has long enough (!) tubing that I can have the machine on a counter and take a shower while it's still in use. I had to borrow a safety pin from the next door neighbour so I could pin a gathering of the tubing to my shirt so I wouldn't have to carry it. I can't seem to find my sewing kit anywhere since moving.
The machine itself is in a case so that it is worn like a purse when moving about. It's not exactly light though - it weighs nearly 2 kilos. Unfortunately, the machine arrived from the company with an empty battery so tonight I've had to be plugged in where ever I sit, but after it fully charges overnight I shouldn't have that problem. When the canister that collects the fluid is full, the machine will sound an alarm and tell me on the reading it's time to change the canister, and since they taught me how to do it and I have spares it'll be no problem. The one good thing is that aside from seeing fluid in the tubing, because there's a cover on the machine you can't see the canister. I always hated that when carrying around drains and the drain bottles - that you could see all the icky stuff.
It's sure like revisiting mastectomy and reconstruction all over again though.
My dressings will be changed only on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays now. From what the wound specialist told me, and the instructions she wrote out, I have 2 bits of foam that are put inside the wound - both touching each other, and placed so they are part of the contours of the inner part of the wound cavity. They then put another bit of sponge on top - making sure that all three foam parts touch each other. This is then draped with film to create a seal. A small hole is cut in the center area where the sponge is, and the 'trac-pad' (the part of the machine that connects to me) is put on. This part connects to the wound/sponge and has the tubing that connects to the machine. This tubing connects to another tube that is part of the canister system. When I change the canister, I clamp both tubes and disconnect them between the areas that are clamped. I then put another canister in the machine and attach it's tubing back to the one from the wound, unclamp and turn the machine back on.
It does hurt a bit more, but it's not too bad. I'm sure to get accustomed to it. It does make some strange noises at times - a bit like a very loud grumbling tummy. The only real hassle so far is realising after I've plugged into a wall socket and sat down that I want various bits and pieces that I forgot to bring with me. I'm sure I'll get the hang of dragging it around in no time though - and hopefully will begin to remember to bring all the bits and pieces I want with me before sitting down and getting comfortable.
Oh, I just got Pam's joke about Hoovering around! Haha! Sorry, I'm a bit slow lately.!
I do think it's funny that I can't even run the darn vacuum cleaner and yet here I am attached to a ... vacuum. How absurd.
So we came home, I plugged in and then realised I wanted a zillion things and was about to unplug the machine to go get and do those things when Rod came in and said he was ready to go do the Target thing to find a doona cover and run a few misc errands. My machine said it had 3 bars so I decided to go with him. Damn good thing too. He got sticker shock as all the good doona covers were over $100. We finally found an aisle of mark downs and I found one that I kind a liked that was marked down to $65. On a whim, and because I had another package in hand with no price on it, I went to one of those pricing stations and did the bar code. The one that was marked $65 actually scanned at $40. The other one turned out to be a sheet set and I hadn't noticed. Good thing the scanner told me. So I got a nice teal coloured cover with two pillow cases for only $40. We then ran into some cheaper ones at Coles (our local grocery store) but they were $39 and as Rod pointed out, we got a $130 cover for only $40 instead of a $39 one for $39. Good point darling!
I also picked up some multi-vitamins today so that should help too. My HB count was 111, and they said they consider you anemic at 100, so I was close, but not nearly as bad as a few weeks ago. So the iron tablets I was taking the last two weeks have helped. I ran out the other day, but the vitamins I bought today has this included in it so I'm set.
Anyway, that's about it. Oh, suppose I should do another BGL to make sure the tea worked and include that here... 5.0 ... lovely the green tea did it's job. :-)
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