Clean!

I just took my first shower in almost three weeks. That's right. I hadn't bathed in nineteen days. The horror!

Okay, this isn't exactly true. I have had quite a few sponge baths over the past weeks and I have washed my hair several times with the removable shower head as I leaned precariously over the tub on one leg, made all the more difficult by the pins sticking out of my leg. But still, nineteen days is a long time not to set foot in the bathtub. Too long. I remedied that tonight. I am back to showering with a garbage bag duct taped to my leg to prevent my fixator from getting wet (at least until my pin sites heal a bit more), but I am showering nonetheless. It was wonderful. I used body wash, I shampooed and conditionered my hair, I loofahed, and I even shaved! And now I feel squeaky clean!

Clean!!!

In other news, I started doing the dressing changes for my pin sites on my own yesterday. On Thursday I helped the home care nurse do it and on Friday I did the grunt of the work while she watched to make sure I did things properly. She thought I did a great job and decided that I am capable of doing it completely on my own without supervision. So now instead of coming every day, a nurse only comes every three days to make sure that everything is going okay. This is wonderful for two reasons. First, being able to do the dressing changes on my own gives me more independence - I get to take some control of my own health care and I don't have to sit at home all day waiting for the nurse to come round (the time changes daily). Second, although one of my nurses doesn't come every day, I still get the regular visits that allow a professional to keep a close eye on things. As a nursing student (half way done my program), I have had enough in-class and clinical experience to know the signs of infection and when to seek medical attention. I have, however, never had any experience with external fixators before. So while I have faith in my own knowledge, I welcome the expertise that the home care nurses bring. Between my own knowledge, the home care visits every three days, and my bi-weekly hospital appointments to get new x-rays and see my surgeon, I am pretty well taken care of =) As times goes on, the interval between home care visits will probably become a week, and possibly more after that. I am not sure if I will be discharged from home care until the fixator is removed. It is good to keep an extra set of eyes on things given the nature of external fixators and the high risk of pin site infections and I need to be a home care patient to order more supplies when I run out of them.

Result of the first dressing change I did on my own. By the time the fixator comes off, I will be a pro at this!

Oh, another benefit to doing the dressing changes on my own is that I can put the non-woven sponges on the way I want. I will get into that another day. My surgeon said that I could just wrap band aids around them, but for now I prefer this. The pin sites still leak a fair bit (the fluid sometimes builds up and runs down my leg, so the sponges help prevent that by soaking the fluid up) and, quite frankly, I am not ready to leave the pin sites uncovered. It is still too weird and out of the normal to see the pins sticking out of my skin.

Also fixator related - I have been doing "the turns", or making adjustments, to my fixator since my post-op appointment on December third. The surgeon said it would take a bit to start actually growing new bone as the slack is worked out of the system (as I turn the knob at the top). I think the slack is finally gone as I am starting to get some pain and discomfort after I turn the knob. I started to notice this Friday night and it was a lot worse last night, so I take it as a sign that the two top pins are now slowly moving the chunk of bone in my leg down (and simultaneously moving through my skin). Let's keep our fingers crossed that there is a tiny amount of bone growth at my next appointment on Friday.

In other news, I have spent the last few days cross stitching. I have taken a break from my blanket project, which is about eighty percent done, to complete some smaller Christmas/holiday projects. It is lovely to be working on aida fabric again. Aren't these mice just adorable? They were designed by Margaret Sherry. I am in love with her work and have stitched several other designs by her in before.

And to add to that, yesterday evening I got out of the house for a bit with my family. My mum, brother, and I drove down to Niagara Falls to see the Festival of Lights. There were some lovely new displays, including two swans and inukshuks. I might not be able to get out in a crowd to enjoy all the Christmas/holiday festivities, but between driving around the city looking at lights, some Christmas themed cross stitch projects and carols playing on my mp3 player, I am enjoying myself anyways! I hope everyone reading this is able to enjoy the season as much, if not more, as I am.