Mixed Messages
Well, I'm back at home. I'm getting really confused with all the mixed messages I'm getting. The wound care nurse had me thinking I was on death's door, full of infection that would consume me if I didn't have the hernia mesh removed like yesterday.

So I go to the ER, and the doc in the ER says that he doesn't see any infection at all - just lots and lots of serous fluid that's running clear. They did blood tests, and my WBC count isn't elevated at all, and I don't have a temp, again which means no infection. He consulted with the wound care doc too, who just wants me to have the wound packed and cleaned daily until I see him on the 25th. So the ER took a culture (which the results will be back in 48 hours), pumped me full of Dilaudid, and sent me home with an prescription for Vicodin.

The funny thing is, the wound care doc told me himself that the hernia mesh was infected on Monday. And now it's not? Could the antibiotics have actually knocked the infection right out of me? I sure hope so, as the wound is starting to heal (Paul says that today he had like 12-15" of dressing left over, whereas yesterday he had like 6").

Either way, I'll be glad when this is all over with. At least now that the pain is being managed, things are a bit more bearable.