As I mentioned earlier, I had to go in for weekly dressings and Vac changes after my wound debridement surgery. This time I was accompanied by Rajetten in the Ambulance, and my sis-in-law followed us in her car. We arrived at the casualty around 11:00 am. Dr. Shahid had suggested that I better get a shot of a painkiller before the procedure.

1st Shot of Painkiller

I can’t actually turn completely on my sides with the fixator and my legs propped up on two pillows. However, I managed to turn slightly to my right when the nurse came to give the shot. As he placed the needle a little above my left bottom. I held my breath, “ok here comes the pain!” 😬 I thought to myself. When I was admitted to the hospital, taking a shot on my bottoms had always been irritatingly painful. But surprisingly this time it wasn’t painful as I expected!! After about 10 minutes or so, Dr. Askhar arrived and I was wheeled out to the casualty procedure room. While Rajetten and my sis-in-law waited outside.

Inside the procedure room

To me, it felt like a makeshift procedure room! For one thing, it was outside the casualty, and second, it was cramped and hot!

The unboxing 😂 started with an ED staff opening up the bandage. Dr. Askhar, Dr. Harin, and Anoop were there. Dr. Shahid and Junais soon joined in. After the white pads and bandages came off, things started to roll.

Changing the Foam

Dr. Shahid had given me an idea about how the foam would be replaced and he did mention that it might hurt a bit. I could feel the force of someone prying the foam from the wound. It was like removing a stubborn duct tape. 😬 In some areas, they had to apply more force. Once the foam had come off and the wound had to be cleaned. This time the wound specialist Dr.Harin took up the sweep and clean mission. I had my glasses off but I still could make out it wasn’t Dr. Askhar, from the pressure applied and how the sweep motion was different 😄. Whenever he went around the exposed muscle I’d get a strange sensation. I know this from the previous pain sessions, Dr.Askhar said “ Your muscles aren’t used to being touched!!” 😄. It’s true! Our touch is on our skin, not directly on the muscle!! In my case, there wasn’t much skin and everything was exposed !!

When I mentioned it wasn’t Dr. Askhar doing the wound cleaning, Dr. Harin joked “Ok you are more used to the gentle soft touch from the ortho guys!!” Everyone burst into laughter!! 😂 The Ortho Department is known for its roughness because they are hard on bones, they chisel, cut, screw drill, and work with heavy stuff like nails hammers, steel pins, and rods. As Dr. Shahid once said “We are carpenters, welders, plumbers, and electricians all rolled into one ” 😄 They have the rep of being the rugged and tough department!

However, it was not their area of expertise when it came to wounds, so they tend to be more gentle. The way Dr. Harin cleaned up the wound was probably the right way. After all, he is the wound specialist! 😊

Dr. Shahid told me that there is slight granulation starting and it was a good sign that the Vac therapy is working. Alhamdulillah !! Although it was too soon to say, for how many days I would have to use the Vac. We would have to wait and check each week. There was one area under the 3rd pin where you could almost see a bit of the fractured bone. That area had to be covered up well otherwise along with skin grafting they would have to add a flap, which in layman’s terms meant, a piece of flesh would have to be placed there along with the skin!!

I knew they had started reapplying fresh foam from stinging pain when the tinger was applied. And this was after they gave me the shot for the pain! At this point, I remember Dr. Shahid’s words “We’ll give you a shot of pain killer but it will only reduce the pain”. True to the words I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if I wasn’t given the shot!! 😬

The foam was followed by the specialized cellophane tape that air sealed the areas and finally the tube was reconnected to the canister. And as the Vac machine got turned on I could hear the familiar sound that I had gotten used to for the last week.

I could also feel my toes being rubbed and cleaned in between. Dr. Shahid was explaining everything that went on, it was Dr. Harin cleaning up between my toes. I was glad he did that, my family was too concerned and way too cautious to even come near my leg, in a way I was also cautious to let them do anything with my leg. The whole process lasted about 45 mins or so. I was a bit tired towards the end. While they gifted wrapped my leg back, I started to feel a bit sleepy.

Just as in the past pain sessions, we joked and laughed. But this had a slight difference, I was kinda in sedation but not actually falling off to sleepsville. To give you guys a similitude, think about the time when sleep is knocking on your door, drowsy with heavy eyelids, and you are trying to stay awake. In this state, my voice starts to get sluggish. Dr. Shahid was in his usual position supporting my thigh, I asked him sluggishly “ why am I feeling all sleepy”, he said that’s coz of the shot of pain killers they gave me from casualty!

Wrap up

Dr. Shahid had to get back to OP and Anoop had taken his place to support my thigh. After the gift wrapping was done and all the doctors had gone back to their OPs. I waited in the procedure room while my sis-in-law went to clear the procedure charges and arrange an ambulance. Anoop was packing up and I found out he used to work at Moulana Hospital as a nurse before becoming the Vac man! That’s why he wasn’t freaking out with all the blood and stuff. I actually thought he was a technician with a lot of guts and had gotten used to all this. Good to know he had a medical background. After a while, Dr. Shahid came back and gave me the prescription of meds for the week, and said he’ll see me next week.😊

With that we were done, I was rolled out of the procedure room and there was an ambulance waiting. Rajetten helped me with Vac Machine and the tubing while I did my transfer onto the Ambulance stretcher and we headed back home.

By afternoon I was back on my bed, tired from the events of the morning. watching the exudate shoot through the tube into the canister, like counting sheep jumping over the fence, I slept off.