Getting dressed

Officially, Friday is my shower day but Mr A is working away tomorrow.

Although I’m much better at getting around, I still wouldn’t dare attempt showering without him there to support me.

After all these weeks, my dressing ritual is on point and doesn’t take as much time as it used to. Today’s blip is my operating table all set up for the procedure!

Pre shower, the dressings come off which then allows me to give the leg and frame a good hose down whilst showering.

Post shower, preparation is key. The solution I use for both cleaning the pin sites and soaking my dressings contains alcohol, so it’s important to soak, squeeze out and allow the alcohol to evaporate off the gauze before putting it anywhere near my leg to avoid a DQ shaped hole in the ceiling!.

The gauze needs to be cut into smaller pieces; 12 (with a slit) for the pin sites and another 2 larger pieces (with an ‘M’ shaped cut) for the two bigger posts.

By the time I’ve cut the pieces, the alcohol has evaporated so I can wipe around the pin sites and check for any signs of inflammation or infection. Scabs (as tempting as they are to pick at) have to be left in situ (unless they are so loose they wipe off) as they provide a good barrier between the wound and the environment.
Any inflamed sites have to be cleaned with saline or again, I’d skyrocket if alcohol went anywhere near them!

Once everything is cleaned (pin sites, pins and rubber bungs which hold the dressings in place), I can redress everything.

It’s a precise operation which has to be done aseptically; luckily my dental background has trained me well for this!

I always feel better once it’s all done; it’s always a relief to know everything looks ok.

Plus, every week I do this is one closer to the cage coming off! ;-)

DQ x