Well, hello! It has been so long since I have checked in with all of you! We had a wonderful time relaxing, reading, talking, playing games, watching movies, laying out in the sun, swimming, and taking lots of naps! Although I never made it out to the beach (too difficult to figure out how I would travel on the sand), Doug and the kids enjoyed collecting shells, jumping waves, and taking long walks at sunset. Annika was thrilled to have her good friend, Quinn, join us for a few days (to celebrate her 10th birthday), and Elise was just happy to have a new bucket of Easter playdough to play with on the balcony.
Marco Island is filled with very tan, active, and friendly senior citizens. I was getting a little tired of looking into the faces of fit and beautiful 70 year old women (with tennis racquets in hand) as they asked me questions about my fall with unbelievable pity. Everyone wanted to know where I had gotten my cool scooter, or how long I had been on antibiotics, or when my doctor thought I might walk again. But even though they were all very polite, they were the ones heading off to the courts to hit their tennis balls back and forth, while I was the one fitting tennis balls onto the legs of my walker.
My doctors all worked together to make it possible for me to be away for one, entire week. I don't know what I was thinking when we made these plans. For the past three months, I have seen a doctor every other day . . . how did I think I would be away for 7 days without seeing a doctor?? So . . . my infectious disease doctors taught me how to mix antibiotics the old fashioned way instead of using their cool refrigerated antibiotic balloons (they only last 3 days). This meant using a tall IV stand and priming a lot of fancy tubing before each infusion--made me feel like I had already graduated from medical school.
Dr. Carbonell wanted me to continue to have the dressings on my wound changed every other day (which is usually done by my home health care nurse). This was especially important because of the new horse heart bioimplant on my wound. So . . . the nurses taught me how to do my own VAC/wound care and I did it on my own in Marco!
Everything went great until Wednesday night when I changed my dressing and thought things looked a little funny. Without giving too many gross details, I will just say that there was a lot of slimy gook and an odd odor coming from my wound. Even though we were planning to stay until Friday night (right now), I did not want to be responsible for my wound getting infected while on vacation. So, my Mom, Elise, and I headed back to Miami on Thursday morning to see Dr. Carbonell. Turned out that everything was fine (whew!) and he even wrote me a prescription for a walker with 4 wheels and a fold-down seat (the seniors in Marco will really be jealous, now!!).
Although our vacation ended a little abruptly (Doug and Annika came back this morning), it was wonderful to get away and even make an awkward attempt to swim in a pool!
Life is good.
Anne
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