Early Christmas present.....

[Jon P. Inghram]

If it doesn't bother you, could we see a picture of how it's healing? Just curious to see how it looks compared to the last picture you posted (the one that showed the Grand Canyon sized gash.) Then you can post the pictures on a web site and claim it's a brown recluse wound or something.

[Dr Mordrid]

Doesn't bother me at all. In fact here are 3 pics following the progress;

After "the big one"


Post closure


December '04


Needless to say I'm very happy with my surgeon, Dr. Doreen L. Ganos of Henry Ford Hospital: Her info page....

IMO anyone needing a plastic or hand surgeon should look her up.

Dr. Mordrid

[The Rock]

WOW. The wonders of the human body and its healing capabilities. That must have been one ugly incident that caused that.

[Jon P. Inghram]

Wow, pretty darn impressive! 100 years ago it probably would look more like:



Pretty scary what just a splinter can do in the wrong circumstances!

[Dr Mordrid]

Rock;

It was a sliver of wood about 1/4" long that entered right on the midpoint of the "lifeline" while I was handling a piece of plywood I'd just cut.

Immediately after it happened I pulled the sliver, cleaned it out with a betadine scrub brush like they use in operating rooms, applied antibiotic cream etc. and apparently got it all (no remnants found during surgery #1).

Even so it went to hell within 24-30 hours anyhow and ended up the size of a softball. They started IV antibiotics as soon as I hit the ER, but dispite this the s*** hit the fan and it ended up massively infected down deep.

Subsequent surgeries removed a lot of tissue including quite a portion of the fascia (fibrous tissue overlaying the tendons, nerves etc.). Of course all of this was punctuated by lots of painkillers (Vicodin, Demerol etc.) and high potency antibiotics (Cipro mainly).

The bugs found in the wound were quite a witches brew and the Dr. told me I was basically one very lucky SOB, especially since at one point the infection was starting up my forearm (the classic red streaks).

Jon;

eYup. Was a close call.

Dr. Mordrid

[KRSESQ]

What kind of wood did they use to make that plywood???

And where did you buy it? Never shop there again!

A tip of the hat and a toast to your doctors.

Kevin

[The Rock]

I'll never use wood again. Hell I may never even get wood again! Harrowing tale Doc!

[DukeP]

So glad to hear of your progress.

Dastardly things, these infections.

Imagine that we used to think that infections were a thing of the past, what, with antibiotics et al.

But now...
Resistent strains crop up all over the place.

In Denmark we have just found a harrowing amount of resistant strains in poultry imported frmo outside EU.

The use of antibiotics in the food for livestock etc. should be banned worldwide. It IS allready the cause of human deads.

~~DukeP~~

[Dr Mordrid]

Just this past summer the US had had a bunch of cases involving a "flesh-eating" strain of staphylococcus called MRSA;

http://www.ghi.com/yourhealth/articles/103007.html

This is new in terms of the general public getting MSRA. Most infections involving it have been hospital related (staph is a big problem in hospitals everywhere). Since most "flesh-eating" infections in the past have involved a strain of streptococcus MSRA's move into the general public has a lot of people very concerned.

It was birch plywood and fresh from the store.

My Dr. thinks that the wood was incidental and that the bacteria colony was already on my skin, probably from touching something in a public place that was contaminated; sink, doorknob, some product I had examined etc.

All the sliver did was move a bit of the colony from the surface into a place where it could set up shop and take off.

Unfortunately for me I hadn't washed my hands before going to the shop and starting on my project. Lesson learned.

My wife also purchased me a pair of Kevlar woodworking golves

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search.html/002-7694913-7868035?url=node=1036682&keywords=kevlar%20gloves

Dr. Mordrid

[gt40]

Doc,
how fine a knit are those kevlar gloves, will small metal slivers go through them?

[Dr Mordrid]

Anything can be penetrated by a pointed sliver that's long enough. The Kevlars are mainly geared towards stopping scrapes and edged cuts. That said my gloves have a very tight weave, so something would have to hit the gaps to get through.

Dr. Mordrid