Personal Trial: Leg Sores (Recovery)

Well it's been about 3 and a half weeks of recovery, since I went to and left the hospital.  The first two weeks were a little rough.  The leg part wasn't too bad but my left ankle swelled up more since the hospital.  It was pretty painful.  I had to keep my feet up to keep the pain at bay.  When I had to put them down to crutch to the bathroom or something I would have to sit on the edge of the bed for at least a half an hour to allow my blood circulation to run its course so the pain in my foot wouldn't be bad enough to where I could stand keeping it down for a crutch to the bathroom and back.  Finally after some new meds and elevation and ice the swelling went down and the pain eventually went away.  I missed two Sundays from church and I was so sad to be away from Primary for that long (I teach/do music with Primary kids ages 3-11 at church each week).  It was a long two weeks.  I felt so useless as all I could do was sit in bed or on the couch or sleep (which I needed for recovery, but still).  Adam has been such a sweetheart taking care of everything Eli needs and me.

After the swelling went down I found four small purple bumps around my ankle.  "Nooooooo!"  I called the dermatologist about it and I went in for them to see it and they told me to be careful and put my prescription ointment on it.  Well, the next day, wha-da-ya-know, I bumped it and it blistered.  It was different than the ones on my legs though.  It never popped, per say, but it ended up sort of slowly leaking out and left behind excess skin, which is now starting to peel off.  It's still healing but looks as though it will be a lot easier to manage than my legs (hooray!).

The ankle progression:

Monday, June 2

Saturday, June 7

Tuesday, June 10

Friday, June 13 - morning

Friday, June 13 - evening

Saturday, June 14

Sunday, June 15

 Monday, June 16

 Tuesday, June 24

So that's the ankle spiel.  As far as the legs, the dermatologists prescribed me some steroidal ointment to apply to the wounds twice a day along with some oral steroids in the form of Prednisone (boooo) as a joint decision with my GI doc.  I'm taking like 12 pills a day right now, boo.  In the name of health....  My Ulerative Colitis is finally getting under control, and the leg wounds are looking better.  They are trying to scab but the docs don't want them to.  When all this is done I'm going to have some nice scars.  I'm sure they would scar worse if they scabbed.  This is still going to take a long while to heal completely.  I go in tomorrow morning to see the dermatologists for another check up.  I'll be seeing them every few weeks for a while I guess.  In the mean time I'm taking lots of pills, cleaning my wounds once a day with water and ivory soap, changing the bandages twice a day, and being careful not to injure them further as that could make them worse.  And no soaking in water, which means no swimming.  :(  What a way to spend a hot summer in AZ!  But I'm happy to be walking.  :)

Some pictures of the "zombie bites" --

Monday, June 2

Monday, June 9

Monday, June 16

Monday, June 23