Badge of Courage! (Tonight's photo not for weak stomachs!)

I am going to post tonight's photo of Woody's wound at the end of the blog so each can determine for themselves if they really want to see it! Today was our first day to change the dressing ourselves and Woody wanted me to take a photo. It wasn't the easiest to photograph due to the lighting in the family room. In the end I used a flash but that made it a bit too dark. I attempted to use my photo shop program and get it closer to its true colors...not the prettiest of sights! His leg above the knee is still a bit orange from the "stuff" they painted on it. We are still peeling cotton like substance off his leg that they wrapped it with initially. The black horizontal line on his knee is the mark that they made to make sure they were operating on the correct leg. His leg is quite red where all his radiation scarring is.The scar itself is about eight inches long. Definitely not a pretty sight, but Woody wanted me to post this photo. I guess we can document how much it improves from day to day. He only has to wear the BIG bandaid until the wound stops "weeping" and today's bandaid looks so much better at the end of the day than yesterday's did...so progress (I think)! All this just once again tells me that I have never been and still am not nursing material! Woody's sleep patterns are definitely off as he naps when he feels like napping and is awake when he feels like being awake...so that may mean that he is sleeping mid morning and awake in the middle of the night. I heard him downstairs in the wee hours of the morning and went down to check on him. He was up and had been up for a while. He decided that he wanted his breakfast! So before I headed up back upstairs to go back to sleep, I made him his oatmeal! He was asleep when I woke back up and has dozed off and on during the day...hopefully healing rest. He managed to go upstairs to print out the ten crossword puzzles that he had missed doing while in the hospital and to "look around on the computer." He ascends and descends the stairs sitting down. He uses our rolling office chair to maneuver around upstairs. He still isn't to put much weight on his leg, but can now put that foot flat on the floor for balance rather than just touching his toes down...so he is still hopping with the walker, but just a bit different gait than before. He has learned that he doesn't like to be in the same place very long...so he moves between the couch and his recliner and also did a few things sitting at the card table that is in the family room. He started reading again today so that occupies his time too. He hadn't been interested much in reading since his surgery...probably didn't help that I had left his books at home! So we are muddling along trying to establish a new routine around our present circumstances! And, now I will post the photo of his leg...I hope that I wrote enough so it won't automatically be on the screen and you can choose to look or not!