Connie Foot Photo #12

 Today the Foot God decided he would sew on the apligraf (read here all about it).  As I've said before the apligraf is living cells, proteins, and collagen all rolled into....what looked to me like a piece of paper.

 The apligraf came in a sealed bag.  The Foot God had nurse Michele pour some saline into the bag and then he pulled out the apligraf with tweezers and slapped it on to the wound and smoothed it out.  I commented on how it looked like a piece of paper and my disappointment in this, but the Foot God was pretending I was not standing over his shoulder admiring his work and taking pictures.

He then opened another bag and removed this tool.  He had a curved needle that was threaded and he began poking around for a place to jab this needle into.  When I realized that he intended to sew up Connie's foot I decided that perhaps my standing over the Foot God might make him nervous, and I went to sit down....by Connie's head.  Connie and the Foot God commented on my squeamishness and my lack of professionalism as a blogger, and so to save face I returned to stand behind the Foot God and resume photographing.

Nurse Kelly peeked into the room to observe.  Connie did not feel his sewing, and he seriously did not care one way or the other, or so it seemed.  Again, it is hard to read the Foot God.  He had a tough time getting the needle in and out of Connie's thick skin and lots of blood was involved.

When he finished sewing it looked like this.  I was a tad disappointed in the whole procedure.  This is a graft?  It seemed quite sloppy to me, which I commented on and was ignored.

The Foot God then cut around the apligraf and his sewing to tidy up a bit.  I mused aloud at how much apligraf seemed to be wasted.  No comment.  He had told us earlier he had gotten it for free, and other than thanking him, Connie and I left it at that.  We wondered, of course, later how he had done this, but at the time Connie was just thankful.

The job was completed in less time then it took to visit the lady's room.  I said that the end result looked like a pink rose and nurse Michele agreed.  The Foot God just continued ignoring us and working on finishing the job.  Usually he leaves the wrapping job to the nurses, but today he did it himself.  Which, of course, I commented on.

Which he, of course, ignored.  When we talk about the Foot God aloud we also answer for him so that it is like we are having a conversation with him.  Occasionally he makes one syllable responses, but it is very rare.  Sometimes he says, "What?" and then we repeat our comment and he might snort or he sometimes repeats what we just said in question form.

Me:  "Wow, he is actually doing the dressing this time.  He never does the dressing.  He usually leaves that to the peons."
Connie:  "Perhaps he feels that after a surgery he must finish the awesome job himself."

Foot God:  "What's that?"
Me:  "You're doing the bandaging.  You don't usually do that.  You order your nurses to finish up that mundane job."
Foot God:  "I don't do the bandaging?"

When it was all over and done with the Foot God said he would see us on Friday, but I mentioned that wasn't such a good day for me.  We changed it to Monday, although I offered to rearrange my schedule if he thought Friday was when he should see her.  It was like pulling teeth, but he told me Monday was fine.  The home health nurses are not to touch the foot and the bandage is not to come off for a week.  Connie has an appointment with the infectious disease doctor today, but she will not be able to see the foot, and when we called her office to explain this the nurse said to come in anyway.

UPDATE:  Visited the infectious disease doctor who informed Connie that she could pump in all the antibiotics into the wound, but the only way to heal was to stay off of the foot.  Connie actually heard this       (unlike all the times I've said it) and is adapting.  On Wednesday the wound was seeping through the bandages.  On Thursday the home health nurse called the Foot God and put new bandages on top of the old bandages and Connie is to see him Friday.