~A Bitter Swallow~

Many of you (at least those of you at PT), have heard me discussing my step-father's latest stint in the hospital. I figured with all these posts I've been reading about zombies, and dieting, that I would share an update. Those of you in the two previous mentioned categories should appreciate this. Or hate me. Or both. Let me know.

Anyways... back to my step-dad, and what his hospital stay has to do with zombies and dieting. A couple weeks ago he bumped his hand. Now, keep in mind he didn't smash it or anything. He bumped it, and got a little surface scratch. His hand hurt horribly after a while. It swelled. They figured (they, being him and my mom) that they would wait until morning and see if it went down any. They were thinking maybe he bumped and bruised a vein or something. My mom went to the football game. She got home a few hours later, to my step-dad standing in the door, holding out what appeared to be a latex glove someone had blown up. It was his hand. They decided not to wait until morning, and went on out to the emergency room.

Of course, they ran the usual suspect tests.. looking for broken bones, sprains, etc etc etc. They were perplexed. My mom jokingly told my sister that it looked like that "flesh-eating thing". We mused here at work that perhaps a doctor or nurse overheard and decided to check it out. Fifteen minutes or so later, they come in to tell my mom they have to fly my step-dad over to Harborview because she was correct. It had spread through his hand, and was starting up his arm. necrotizing fasciitis- aka the flesh-eating disease. Here's a link. http://www.healthatoz.com/healthatoz/Atoz/common/standard/transform.jsp?requestURI=/healthatoz/Atoz/ency/flesh-eating_disease.jsp

Ok.. I suppose for those of you (who are like me) and are too lazy to click open the links and read it.. I should give you a little background on what this thing is. Because I'm lazy I'm going to copy and paste some tidbits from the link:
"Flesh-eating disease is more properly called necrotizing fasciitis, a rare condition in which bacteria destroy tissues underlying the skin. This tissue death, called necrosis or gangrene, spreads rapidly. This disease can be fatal in as little as 12 to 24 hours."
There are two different types, according to the link, and I'm pretty sure he has type II. Apparantly it is caused by a bacteria in our own bodies that reacts to another bacteria entering. It is a prominent case of everything being present at the right time.. or rather, at the wrong time.

It gets gruesome, so if you are weak in the tummy, you may want to turn away now. You are all lucky I am not on my home computer typing this up, because I have pictures. They are enough to turn even the most demanding carnivore vegan. Those of you who are dieting.. stay tuned. I'm here to help.

They had to cut his arm open to drain. I'm not talking about little puncture wounds here. They slit his arm from palm to elbow (underside of the arm), and have it spread open (it's about I'd say 6-9 inches wide). He said when they first cut into it.. it just kind of popped open with one of those slushy sludgy sounds.. a true puss pod popping open. The doctors and nurses all wear full-blown face masks when dealing with him now. Can't say I blame them.

So, he is in the burn unit for the first week or so. It's a serious open wound, so that is the department they keep him in. He is now moved down into the trauma ward. I think I might know his roommate from school. Poor thing was in a car wreck and has some severe head trauma. It was sad.. I still need to look his name up in my year book.

I went to visit my step-dad this past Sunday. For those of you not keeping track of posting dates, that was the 11th of Novemeber, 2007. They say it's looking much better. I'll have to post pictures for those of you brave enough to wager your lunches on the view. But at the same time, it's amazing. To think one can sit there for two weeks now with thier arm wide open. And the packing of it.. wow. They have this foam (yes- foam) that the cut to fit the wound. They place it on there, wrap it in a celophane looking tape, put a couple hoses on it, and vacuum seal it. Yep.. you heard me. ( We have video of this as well ). He carries around a little vacuum attached to his arm that continually sucks anything that shows up in there out. It's gross, and astonishing, at the same time.

The inside of the arm is much meatier than I originally figured. So- for the zombies.. good starting point.

There was suprisingly little blood. I figure this had to do with the vacuum. He's right.. it does look like something familiar, but can't yet put my finger on it. One of us will figure it out eventually. And then there will go another food item down the drain. Come to think of it.. it kind of looks like curdled milk- the goo that comes down that vacuum tube. Yum.

Luckily, he is losing no body parts. They were able to catch it in time before it spread to badly for that. He IS losing some flesh, but skin graphs will help that. We were rather disappointed to hear they will not be removing flesh from his butt to put on his arm, so our teasing name of "stink arm" will not apply. However, yet another amazing medical advancement brought to our attention to learn that it is a synthetic "skin". I'll update on that later once I gain more info.

They hope to have him out in time for Thanksgiving. He has to heal, and get the graphs, and go through a lot of physical therapy, but I'm sure some of that can be done in doctor visits. Hopefully.

I'll post more as it comes to me. I think I've eaten my brain cells typing this tonite. More to come!

I really like this site, and can see me using the heck out of it!! It will take me a bit of time to set it up the way I want, but if I can get it to do what I want.. wowza!

I wish you could set up "catagories" for your own library though. Not sharable "tags" for them, just personal categories within my own site. If this IS possible.. I haven't figured it out yet. I would just LOVE to be able to add a section to put books I want to read.. but haven't yet. I can't properly tag them if I haven't read them... I suppose "want to read" could be the ONLY tag I put on it. That should categorize them within my own searching... I'll have to give that a whirl and see how it goes.

My site is here: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Thaydra