what about the hole?
Yeah, so there is a hole left once the mic-key button is gone. These close up pretty quickly when the button has been in for less than six months… Nolan had his in for two years so things aren’t closing up quite so quickly, though it is “closed” enough to make it impossible to replace the button without surgical intervention. We have had some leakage issues, the fluid coming out bothers his skin around the ostomy and seems to make the ostomy itself somewhat raw. (sorry if you were eating while reading this…). So we put bandages over the site and put various ointments on his skin to both protect it and to help it heal. He has had a cough for the past week which seems to have made the leaking worse as he bears down to cough but the site is looking better now as we have been more on top of taking care of it. Apparently the doctors give such a long term hole about 4 to 6 weeks to heal before they begin talking about intervention.
After doing some research and talking to my handy Dr. neighbor it seems there is a chance (say around 40%) that he will have to have surgery to get the hole to close. I have heard everything from simply stitching it closed to the doctors needing to scrape down to the next epithelial layer so the skin will connect. I haven’t asked what the surgeries would entail in terms of anesthesia because I am not ready to know. Meanwhile we will just assume his body will do its work in Nolan time and I am going to put my new found knowledge of Qigong to use to help things along. Remember, closure is a good thing.
Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 5:59 am
Thanks for the answer. Yes, I was eating breakfast, but that’s OK. I don’t get grossed out easily about medical things. And now I have a specific target to be channeling positive energy towards, so it’s all good.
lots of love
el hombre de los pantalones cuadrados
Monday, April 13, 2009 at 12:11 am
Can’t believe how big he has gotten and how long it has been….keep those updates coming!!!