Home on Vacation

You may remember from an earlier post that I was comparing being able to do the simple things in life with being on vacation? Or if you felt sorry for yourself that you could not do something fun or go on a vacation you could simply not eat or take a shower for a while and the joy of resuming eating or showering would seem like a vacation.
I came home Monday April 20 from my 3rd surgery. I had a successful muscle flap rotation and skin graft. I have had the chance to have about 4 showers with actually putting my head under the shower head. Oh did that feel vacation good. I am also in my own bed next to my wonderful wife of 24 years. My kids are down the hall and its good to home! I am currently wrapped back up as of Thursday 4-23 and my skin donor site on my leg is healing and acts much like a road rash you would get after falling off your skateboard. Prior to this doctor visit I had a most unusual thing happen. I woke up Thursday morning with some pretty bad eye pain. It got to the point that I had to keep my eyes shut and have a black shirt over my eyes as well to keep the light out and pain down. After a call to my trusty GBC nurses, they got me in touch with Dr. Baskin and I got an immediate appointment with him. Once again GBC pulled through for me. Before we left home Heather fed me a bowl of cereal and was teasinig.., "oh great, first your lame and now your blind" hah. Then she started messing with the spoon and making me spill. It was a fun moment inspite of the circumstances. Heather is my Hero. she hauled me down there and Heather and Gracie led me to Dr. Baskin like you would lead a blind person down the street. Of course Dr. Baskin wanted me to open my eyes and I did not. He wanted the lights on and I wanted them off. hah. Finally he pryed open my eye to get some numbing drops in them and things slowly got better. After 5 minutes or so he diagnosed me with Iritus, inflamation of the iris. I left the office with more drops and much less pain and could see much better. Dr. Baskin says he does not think the Iritus (sp) is directly connected to my shock accident but Iritus can come at anyone especially immune deficient or having a stressed body. I will tell you this: This eye pain was greater than anything I can remember done to me in the last 35 days. Ouch. Of course this little bump in the road made me thankful for another one of those simple pleasures in life. Sight. It also made me think of what a priviledge it is to have such great medical care at our fingertips. How does a 3rd world person get through something like this?
Today I can see about 90% better and the pain is minimal and for that I am thinkful.

Right after my eye appointment I had to go to GBC for a check up on my head. Dr. Peter and Dr. Kirt and Lilly cleaned my wound areas, removed some of the staples and trimmed off unwanted overlapping skin from my graft. There is a small area on the back of my head that had been drainaging and needed attention. They actually stuffed some guase inside my scalp and created a better drainage port. I am on antibiotics to ward off this situation. I go back on Monday or Tues to see how things look. I may need to be bandaged up for another week or so even though some of you have seen me with nothing on my head. Air is good sometimes and sometimes not. Needless to say the work on my head was..shall we say..NOT like having a back rub. hah. By the time I got out of there I wanted to go home and go home fast! I looked like the invisible man with my white gauzed head and black sunglasses. ha.
Thursday was a rough day but today has been a great day of resting, visits from friends and a specail delivery of a Kahuna Grill milk shake. Yum Yum.
Take Care everyone. God is Good
Todd