The plastic surgeon promptly sent me to his co-surgeon for evaluation and the determination was that they were going to attempt to give me a rotational flap. Estimated surgical time was 2-4 hours. Unfortunately, after they had removed the flap area and went looking for its providing artery, they found that my artery was not large enough to have a good possibility of success. So, they reattached the flap, began treatment with a substance called Acellular Matrix, which promotes cell growth, and then attached the wound vac to further the acceleration of the healing. Then the six days to make sure that things got rolling because my European insurance found something else they didn't pay for: Durable Medical Equipment. It may have had something to do with the fact that they wanted that wound vac on me for 6 weeks and it was $4500 a month for the rental on the portable unit. I sure couldn't afford to pay for that with cash! Without it, it was explained that recovery from this point on could take 6 months or more. So, the original 1-2 days in the hospital became 6 days. And I got some new added scarring. The flap area, which you will see in pictures on the next page, becomes concave, the skin sloughs off and regrows, and can take 6 months to a year or more to get back to looking like a cohesive part of my foot again. Additional scarring from the potential artery location also is helping the creation of FrankenFoot! See below right and then to next page . . . |
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I was sent to this beautiful facility, Forest Park Medical Center in Frisco. It had only been open a few months and during the SIX days I was there, they had as few as 1 and as many as 14 patients at any given time. Doctor-owned and beautiful, even though there were some kinks to work out.
I spent these six days with all the apparatus that you see in the slideshow to the left. The compression cuff was to prevent clots and the wound vac was to accelerate healing. Because of the length of time in the hospital, I ended up having my IV locations changed 3 times. While at the hospital, I was on doses of IV morphine and hydrocodone for the pain. Part of the pain ended up being from the vac itself, which was stapled with at least 5 staples in my foot to keep it in place. Removing that was SO not fun. Two units of Morphine, two doses of hydrocodone, tears, cursing, squirming, and cutting off the blood flow in my nurse's hand, and it was done. |
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