March 20

Well, today was a long and somewhat sucky day. Finally got to see Dr. M about these damn screws poking up through my skin. He agrees that no amount of HBO treatments is going to help what I have going on there. So first he talked about a two part plan. He can't just take skin from my leg and graft it up there because there's nothing to graft it to. There's no more blood supply available. So he's going to take flesh from my right shoulder, and flop it over to cover up the hole. That way it will have its own blood supply because it will still be attached to me. Once it adheres to the hole and starts setting up its new home, I then go in for a second surgery where he cuts the flesh loose from my shoulder at which point that can then heal. Yeah, I started crying. Not just one surgery but two. I'm not a happy camper. And it sounded awful from the way he was describing it. Although he then said that in the past year or two, this is what they've been doing instead of taking the forearm flesh like I had done in my first surgery. He said it's the new up and coming thing because it's less invasive and less risky that the forearm flesh flap. OH. Well, when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so bad. Meanwhile he felt bad that I had started crying so he threw me a bone. He said the important thing would be to get the plate and screws out of my jaw. They seem to be what broke through the skin in the first place. He said that we can do five more HBO treatments, which would take me to 30, remove the plate and screws, and then do the last ten HBO treatments and see if my neck heals on its own. I like that plan much better. I don't think my neck has a snowball's chance in hell at healing on its own but I think it would be nice to let it try. He said the only downside to doing that is that I'm going to have to be patient because it's going to take more time. That's all I seem to have nowadays so I'm okay with the extra 4 weeks of seeing if it will heal itself. I'm only 44 years old and this usually happens to men over 65. You'd think my body would buck up a little and show them what's what! So, first surgery is scheduled for Wednesday, 4/2. I don't have to spend the night, it's just a day for the surgery. Baby doll and I leave on Friday for Toronto to see the Yankee's. Hopefully I'll be just fine to travel.

Other sundry stuff. I told him that I was cleaning my ears last weekend and the left one started bleeding and I wasn't sure why. Turns out the tube in that ear has come partway out. He's going to fix it while I'm 'out' on 4/2. I told him my TEP doesn't seem to be working. He's going to take a look at that during surgery as well. He looked at the weird scratch on my ear. He has no clue what it is, other than a weird scratch. He's getting the PET scan scheduled. I think that was about it for him.

Joanna, the nutritionist, came to see me. I told her I started switching over to smoothies this week along with some Jevity. I told her about losing my job, and so my insurance as well. First, she showed me a website where people have tube feeding supplies that they've donated. So, if I pay for shipping, it looks like I can still get the prescription food if I wanted to. She also gave me some printouts about foods that I can stick in a blender and then put through my tube and what the nutritional values are and what I should be getting each day. It was perfect! I was looking for just such a thing on the web the other day but didn't have much luck so I should be good to go.

Then Lizzett came in and got me. We went to her office where she called in a coworker who funnily enough, they call Q. They then filled out some online form for me together while asking me for details about some of the questions asked, as needed. She said she should know within 24 hours if I qualify to be on Medicaid or not. That would be a load off my mind if that happened tomorrow afternoon. Fingers crossed for that.

I still need to go get an EKG and some blood work done but by the time I was done with Lizzett I was beat. So, I just came home. I can swing by again tomorrow after my HBO and clean up those last details before the surgery.

So that was my day. I am now going to head in and crash on my couch. I'm zonked!