Second Debridement Done...You Know What is Coming Now

The second debridement was done yesterday (10/25) and it looks like it was a good decision.  The doctor poked around and found two "large" (no exact size given) chunks of dead and detached bone tissue.  (Why does it sound less gross when you say 'tissue'?).  He also cut out a small piece of healthy bone tissue that was left in the first time to help promote healing.  That strategy obviously didn't help any, but it made sense at the time.

I came out of the procedure in a lot of pain--most of it from the insertion of a breathing tube down my throat as a safety measure.  After being given a percocet pill that hardly lowered the pain at all, I came home and went to my old stand-by friend the Roxicet bottle to get some relief.  That worked very well--too well in fact.  If that's what I'll need to manage the pain, I'll also need to be very careful about how long I stay on it so I can try to avoid the terrible detox I went through after Debridement #1. As bad as it was,  I was lucky to go through that in warm weather at the beach in Florida while on vacation.  I don't even want to think about going through that in chilly fall weather, at home, while trying to keep up some kind of work schedule.  And, we got the kitchen knives sharpened recently, so I definitely don't want to get sideways with Terry from a prolonged detox period.

So, once again it's more wait and see.  It should take 4-6 weeks for a healing trend to appear and stabilize, and another 2-3 months for a significant amount of healing to occur (if it's going to happen).  It's way too early to know anything, and this is going to take a while, so please send along more Good Vibes from time to time.  I'll send updates when I think they are necessary.

Speaking of Good Vibes of a different kind, let me say "Thanks" for all the great 60th birthday cards many of you sent last week.  Almost all of you followed Terry's secret instructions that your cards not be serious, or spare my feelings in the least.  I haven't laughed so hard while getting insulted by friends, family, and total strangers since, well...my 50th birthday. 

Mike