It's about time i updated this blog. My AWOL is due to my utter depression, utter chaos, and my sanity being sorely tested, but now Sally is in hospital so have a bit of breathing space.

Over the past week Sally had started on the 2nd phase of the Essential Oils treatment, addressing directly the staph infections on her skin - the reason why I spend $200 weekly on bandages and protection sheets to stop the substances from the sores from soiling her recliner chair. And for the first time ever the treatments began to make significant differences on the sores, many of the smaller areas clearing up completely, resulting in about a 20% reduction in bandages used. Keeping this up for a month as designed would have hopefully eliminated at least most of the sores hence hugely reducing my medical bills.

But as always a spanner in the works. Sally had knocked her leg against the chair and sported what at first seemed to be a nasty bruise about 3 inches long and an inch wide. Then the bruise turned into a giant blood blister. The nurse from Silver Chains suggested she go to the hospital to have it drained, but Sally and hospitals does not get on well together, she avoids them like the plague. Well afterall the original staph infections was gotten from Royal Perth Hospital, and was also where I had gotten the flu from last year. So if she had to go into hospital at all, RPH is a no go zone!! She would go to Charlie Gardiners if possible, not much better but at least we didn't get any diseases from that place!! Sally's issue with Charlie Gardiners was that her ward mate died just after Sally was discharged, and she blames the hospital for her death.

So I placed a bandage on the blister, and as soon as she got up to go to the loo, the bandage turned red! The blister had popped. I carefully removed the bandage, and there was indeed a break in the blister, and a reddish white pussy fluid was literally squirting out, at the most squirting six inches into the air. We went through five bath towels before the flow subsided, and it would now be a slow oozing. However Sally figured if she could get the rest of the substance out the sore would heal, so spent the next day of so waiting for nature to take its course with an occasional help of squeezing.

Then two nights ago we peeled off the bandage and what we saw alarmed us, Sally most of all. The skin on the sore disintegrated and it was all pussy underneath going quite deep into her leg and smelled of rotting flesh. It looked like gangrene may have set in. This really freaked her cos if the gangrene spread she would lose her leg. She reluctantly conceded that she needed to go to the hospital.

So we spent the next day Thursday preparing for this, mostly mentally preparing for Sally as she just did not want to go into hospital but did not relish the prospect of losing her leg to gangrene. The night before last we decided that Sally would go into hospital yesterday - Friday.

We cancelled the Silver Chains services and Sally started to pack her belongings. First we decided she would go into hospital after lunch, but by then she was tired and wanted to take a nap. So I ran my usual errands. Then when I gotten back, Sally decided she wanted to seek an opinion of a doc, and we have the Medicare home visit program from 6pm where a doc would pay us a visit for free. Fair enough I suppose as no doc had actually seen the wound, it was only a Silver Chains nurse that gave the opinion of going into hospital. Nurses does not have as many initials after their names as docs. So Sally wanted a professional opinion.

So 6pm came around, but Sally wanted dinner first before calling the doc. Fair enough, in case the doc calls the ambulance. Then I had a shower and she went to the loo. A couple of hours later I called the Medicare service and when I described the situation to the sheila on the phone, she simply said get her arse to the hospital!! She did not bother to arrange for a doc to visit us.

Now we have no choice. I phoned for the ambulance. Being not a priority call they took their time nevertheless still arrived within the hour which is most reasonable under the circumstances - the busy Friday night period!! It was a while before they loaded Sally into the vehicle, and arrived at Charlie Gardiners just before midnight with me following them.

Friday night is the worse time to visit ER of a public hospital, and i waited for over an hour in the  aptly described waiting area before finally being called to the counter where they asked me the obligatory few questions about Sally and getting Medicare details. Then it would be another half an hour before I was allowed in to see Sally.

So it was close to 2am before I was let in to see Sally, now in an ER bay though they are slightly better designed than RPH bays which has only curtains. Charlie Gardiners bays has solid walls except the front bit which has the curtain. The doc still hadn't been able to see her, and the wound had not been looked at yet. She was most uncomfortable as a result. But being Friday night it would be forever before she would see a doc since as dire as the situation seemed for Sally, it was not classed as a life threatening emergency. I was there until 4am and the doc still hadn't seen her.

So this morning I slept in until well after 9am, and well i am yet to call the hospital for the latest update but i won't do so until a bit later, just before my plan to visit her near dinner time. Hopefully she would be in a ward by then and have at least an initial diagnosis and prognosis on possible length of time in hospital. I am betting about a week if it is indeed gangrene, a day or so if it is just a bad infection, she just be sent home with antibiotics. But in my humble unlearned opinion it looked a bit more than just a bad infection. But as i say I am a Physicist not a Medical Practitioner. I may know how physically the universe works but I am a dimwit when it comes to knowing how the human body works.

Watch this space.