Spinning Turtle: Hospital Follow Up Visit

Friday, August 20, 2010

Hospital Follow Up Visit

Yesterday I took Mia for her follow up appointment at the hospital Fracture Clinic. They had to remove her bandage and re-dress the wound. I don't know what I was expecting. Did I think that it would look normal when they took the bandage off?? Did I think that it would look like it had almost completely healed?? I don't know but what I didn't prepare myself for was what it actually looked like. It looked almost the same as it did the day it happened. It was strange - there didn't appear to be any stitches. The wound was still open. I think that they do that because they want it to heal naturally. I also wasn't prepared for the little bits of black skin on her finger. The surgeon told me that was dead skin. "Is that normal???" I asked. "Yes" he said. "The dead skin will act as a biological dressing and in theory it should aid in the healing of the skin behind it". So now we have to wait. We have to go for a visit to the Fracture Clinic once a week until they are satisfied it is healing well. I asked the nurse after the surgeon left if it looked "normal" compared to other similar injuries she had seen and she said definitely. It was yet another hard day because when I saw that it hadn't changed much from a week before all the feelings of guilt, inadequacy etc came flooding back. I had worked so hard all week to try and "deal with" those feelings with, if I do say so myself, a considerable amount of success. I felt like I had sort of regressed yesterday. I am feeling better today - but I am still worried. Still worried that it won't heal properly. Still worried that they will end up amputating the tip of her finger. Only time will tell. Mia was again a trooper when her dressing was changed. She only cried when the nurse had to take off the bit of dressing directly next to the wound. She is such a good girl. Here is the first bandage she had...