Thursday update

We are approaching a week since Woody's surgery. He is doing quite well. He is still having pain, but at this point is experimenting with taking less pain medication. He has tried going longer between doses and has also tried taking one instead of two.

Last night we had a bit of a concern as small blisters had started on either side of his incision. This wouldn't have been as big a concern if he hadn't been fighting a rash since shortly after his surgery after his bicycle accident back in September. It comes and goes and is very bothersome since it is so itchy. Even now he says that at times he is more bothered by being itchy than by being in pain. Dr. Fiala had told him to use hydrocortosone cream on it and that has helped keep it under control. But we seem to get on top of it and think that it is gone and then it is back. I think that he has had four or five or maybe even more bouts with it since September 15. Anyway, the way the rash gets started is with red spots and then these red spots turn into blisters. Last night when we saw the blisters we were hoping that the rash wasn't encroaching on his incision. Woody had me take a digital picture of it and send it by email to Dr. Holt. When I looked really closely at the picture prior to sending it to Dr. Holt, I pretty much decided that it looked to me like an allergic reaction to the bandage that they put on his incision--the blisters are pretty much in a straight line on either side of the incision. And, when Dr. Holt emailed back this morning, she said that the incision looked fine and that she thought it was a reaction to the adhesive or even to the pad that was on the bandage. Aren't digital cameras and email great! In the "olden days" we would have had to get in the car and head to Nashville to have her take a look at it. Dr. Holt had told us that if we had questions that the best way to communicate with her was by email and it certainly worked this time.

The last news that we have to share with you this posting is that Woody has applied for short term disability at work and it looks like it has been approved.