Life as a Leach

Here's me being wide awake at midnight because I drank too much caffeine today! 😳. I will pay for this tomorrow. Abby's appointment went really well today!  Our surgeon was pleased with the progress of the wound using the wet-to-dry dressings, despite the failed skin graft.  Her wound has shrunk nearly a centimeter since surgery.  He really thinks that this method will be best for Abby, even though it is the longest and slowest of the options.  The curvature of Abby's spine fights everything else he has tried, so this is now our best chance.  It is going to take a while, but it will eventually close.   I can't say enough about our surgeon.  He has been SO diligent and truly cares about Abby. He knows this has been a long road and he is not willing to put Abby through more surgeries without positive outcomes.  His goal is to keep her out of the hospital for a while, and we are hoping that too!  He really is a great guy! So, my theory was prov...

We came to Philly last night for follow-up appointments today.  My dad came with me to help with Abby, and he suggested not checking out of RMH until after our appointments.  It was a good suggestion. The infectious disease appointment went well, but Plastics is concerned about Abby's wound.   He said the wound has opened and spread too much to close on its own and he needs to debride it tomorrow.  Since simply sewing up the wound isn't working, he plans to do a muscle flap and then a skin graft.  A wound vac will be placed afterwards.   He was going to admit her right then, but I asked if she could enjoy the evening at RMH before surgery tomorrow.  He understood and agreed.   She will be in the hospital for at least a week, and we will have to unfortunately cancel our vacation because she will be in no condition to go anywhere.  We got travel insurance for this very reason, but we had hoped we wouldn't need to use it. It's a rough day, but w...