I'm Alive..........sorta

[SimpleSimon]

SLH got here to Shreveport yesterday evening, came to visit me in the nursing care facility I'm temporarily living in while my foot heals up. He has moved back down south to get an apt/find a job and help me get back on my feet, literally.

For those who haven't heard, I've been in the hospital/nursing facility since 5/23. I got home that sunday evening, took off my left shoe, smelled my foot and promptly put the shoe back on to go to the emergency room. Gangrene smells really bad.

I was admitted to the hospital just after midnight on the 24th, and on the 26th they cut a chunk out of the bottom and side of my left foot about 2'' x 3" x 1.5" deep to remove an abcess in the ball of my foot that had broken open to the surface. I was on IV antibiotics until thursday 6/3, when they transferred me to a facility that is a combination nursing home/wound care facility.

For now I am on oral antibiotics and topical wound care treatment to promote healing of my foot, and expect to be in that facility until at least the 17th or longer. Dr tells me it will take 3-4 months for my foot to heal up completely, if not longer. Meanwhile, I am trying to get medicaid to cover the cost of care, as I have no insurance.

We are at the public library right now. Don't know how often I'll be able to get here, or how long I'll be in the nursing care facility.

Take care. More later.

[Mudflap]

*sends money to a TV evangelist to get you healed*

[Skeet]

Uhhh, what happened to it?

[skalie]

Fuck, this thread reminds me of when I used to read Papillon when I was going through shitty times..........

........that "could be a lot worse" trick.

Take care SS, you're a good man, hope the medicare works out in your favour, or something.

[MAC]

oi

[Solstice_Gray]

*gives Simon a big hug*

[Cruise Director]

Please take care, Simon. You haven't the spare limbs to be giving any more up!

We patiently wait for your return.

[Billyman]

Ditto

[Escape Artist]

Good to see you're doing a little better. :)

I'll be in touch when possible.

[Mudflap]

Progressive Care Center
Room 124
(318) 212-8200


Give him a call.

[Skeet]

Yeah, but, what happened to his foot?

[Smug Git]

Good luck old chap. And 'good man', slh.

[ms. bing]

now that's a good son. must be a reflection of the old man...?

simon, i hope you get well soon. and i hope you get plenty of internet access while you are laid up. maybe we can convince someone to take up a collection to get you a wireless laptop type thing? i'd put in a few bucks, happily, if only for the value of having you back in the conversations from time to time. who knows, maybe your care facility happens to be a hotspot, too.
sending love, and i intend to call soon... probably as soon as i get off of here.

[Uberwonder]

Everybody send pizza to his room!

[Skeet]

Ok, I'll assume it was spontaneous gangrene.

[RiZZ]

life dosent like you verry much

keep pissing it off that is my motto

[SimpleSimon]

Skeet, so you won't die of curiosity, here's the sequence of events.

Mid August of last year I fell asleep with my feet on a vibrating/heated foot massager my Dr. had reccomended I get to deal with the pain of diabetic neuropathy in my feet. Fortunately, my right foot slid off of the thing; unfortunately, my left foot did not. When I woke up I had a blister on the ball of my left foot the size of the top of a soup can. That broke open, dried up, and the flesh under it dried and cracked open, got infected. I fought that infection until the end of January of this year, when I was finally able to afford a Dr visit. As a consequence of the long term application of topical antibiotic creams, a bacteroides organism that was immune to most antibiotics got into the wound.

I finally got that wound healed over by the end of March, but it apparently had formed a small deep abcess which my Dr missed.

The end of April I had to move my household goods into a storage unit as my mortgage company was foreclosing on my house (6 months of non-payment pisses them off). The stress and strain of that move apparently irritated the abcess, and when I'd been in Shreveport a week it broke open to the surface. I treated it for two weeks with H2O2 and topical antibiotics, and it kept getting worse. Finally, on the 23rd of May, it started spreading through the flesh of my foot and was becoming blood poisoning, so I went to the hospital.

By the time they decided to do surgery the abcess was about 1.5 inches long, about 1/2 inch in diameter, next to the bone to which my little toe attaches. The surgeon removed a hunk of my foot about 2 inches wide, 2.5 inches long, and 1.5 inches thick, but did not remove the toe.

Now I'm trying to get that wound healed up without it getting re-infected, a process that will take 3-5 months on the short end, as long as 10-12 months if all does not go well.

There it is. I can walk, sorta, and do several times a day as it helps with circulation in my legs and feet. It hurts a good bit, and my balance isn't great as I have to walk on the heel only of my left foot, but I'll manage one way or another.

[Koliedrus]

Selfish though it may be, I'm satisfied when your brain can communicate with mine.

Keep doing that. I'll reciprocate.

[Skeet]

Wow, that sucks.

I'm glad you care about us enough to share it with us, because you know we care about you enough to help however we can. Even Mudflap, despite his homosexual agenda.

Keep us informed dude.

[Barbie]

Simon,

I don't know what to say aside from...please take good care.

xoxo