The trip to the wound clinic

Cozy in her new sky blue down coat, I took Mom to her Tuesday afternoon appointment at the Beaumont Wound Clinic. Pictures and measurements of her wound were taken and treatment discussed. Her hemoglobin was low again (8.6) as was her potassium, which are items of concern. In addition to Dr. Ordona, she was attended to by four nurses and an aide (it takes a village). The discharge nurse emphasized that she needs to eat more protein to help with the healing and also shift the pressure on the wound by standing for a few seconds every 15 minutes if she's sitting, and lie on her side when in bed. She goes back on Groundhog Day, at which time Dr. Ordona may decide whether to recommend her for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (the hyperbaric physicians make the final call on that). The accompanying picture is of Mom looking at the picture of her wound; she was stunned at how horrible it looks, although it looks better than it did the first time she went to the wound clinic.

Her room on the second floor of Heartland is nice, although it's about as far from the nurse's station as one can get (before, her room was right next to the nurse's station). Her roommate, also named Ruth, seems to not be quite all there and Mom hasn't been succesful engaging her in conversation, which is hard for her as playing six degrees of separation is one of her favorite pastimes. Mom seems to be in relatively good spirits, although she is still perplexed as to why the wound developed ("I always used Lysol and Pinesol to clean the bathroom") and misses Dave. Byron and Colleen continue to visit regularly and I'll be back on Saturday.