Continuing Saga of the Heel!

For goodness sake, who would have guessed that the original blister on Pete's right heel would turn into such a drama!!  A week ago Thursday the nurse came, looked at it, declared it nice and clean and dry and put a foam heel cup on it to protect it.  All good so far.  Fast forward a week to last Thursday and a different nurse returned to check how it was doing - she studied it and said she really wasn't sure what to do but would put another adhesive foam pad on it and return on Monday to check it.  Then it all went belly up!  Thursday evening Pete was indicating a lot of pain in his heel again and going into melt down, wanted me to call someone etc.  he even went to the front door, opened it and started shouting.  Eventually he ripped the adhesive patch off and then calmed down a bit.  I absolutely refused to call someone out of hours as all they could do was prescribe pain killers and we already have some really strong ones which he wouldn't take, but I said if it was still the same the next morning I would ring the district nurses again - which I had to do.  One of our regular (that's bad isn't it, to have regular nurses call) nurses came and looked at it and declared that it was seeping under the skin surface so needed to be drained, and the only way she could do that was to put another dressing on it which will soften/dissolve the top layer and allow the gathering pus (yuk!!!) to escape.  It is not infected so I don't really understand what is going on.  Anyway, this dressing was put on and I emphasised to Pete that if he removes it that is up to him but I will NOT be calling anyone about it, just the nurses on Monday morning (the nurse agreed this action).  This dressing has to stay on till Wednesday when she will return to see how it is doing.  So far, so good, Pete has not touched the dressing and seems to be tolerating it with the aid of painkillers.

On the subject of pain killers, she lectured Pete (nicely) on the consequences of overdosing on paracetamol and he must take no more than 8 in 24 hours - so the dishing out of these is now in my hands!!!  She also told us that they have had meetings about Pete and how to proceed with his care.  Firstly, he is showing signs of developing pressure sores on his bum - not surprising as he sits on the sofa for about 12 hours a day - so some cream has been ordered along with a special cushion for him.  Also they have ordered a mattress overlay which has to go on the bed and her words were "I am afraid you will have to sleep on it as well as it has to be a double to cover the whole bed". It is the words 'I am afraid' that worry me, is it uncomfortable or what?!?! Will have to wait and see!!  They are also going to monitor his weight as he is down to about 9 stone when his usual weight used to be ten and a half to eleven stone.  There are also more dressings on order for him.  So, as you can imagine, I don't see the future looking too bright.

One positive thing I did on Wednesday was to order a lightweight wheelchair from Amazon (who else?!?!) as his is terribly heavy to heave in and out of the car.  The idea is that this new one will stay in the car and be used to attend hospital appointments etc.  anyway it arrived yesterday and is about half the weight but still quite sturdy, so that was quick and I am pleased with it.

Finally, a bit of family news, Robbie has been prescribed glasses to wear and has also had grommets put in his ears - so now he can see and hear much much better!  His glasses really suit him and make him look very intellectual!  Josh is now 13 and a real teenager - a handsome young man with attitude!!! As for Ella, she was a team captain at school sports day and her team won, out of 14 teams! So well done Ella, and her mum was tipped that an athletics coach had been watching her and was keeping an eye on her - so watch out for her at future Olympics!!!  The photo is of Ella with the cup they won.