It began small

and grew.

For those with no experience concerning diabetic foot uclers, they look terrible. Well, more than look, they ARE terrible. It takes no time for a small infected scratch to turn into a nightmare. 12 to 36 hours can turn a 1/2 scratch into a wound 3 inches in diameter, an inch deep. Ten CUBIC inches of tissue can die and turn into a foul smelling hole with death on it's lips overnight. This is our third bout. And it looks like we are not going to dodge the bullet this time.

We have no insurance. Our income is just middle class, but it will fail to cover the costs we are going to incur. If we can survive this, it is going to cost tens of thousands. If we don't, $100,000 is possible, even likely.

So, let's start with the history:

Wound start approximately Dec 15, 2007 with small tear of dry skin from bottom of heel. Found pine needle in wound approx 2 days later, wound then about 2" in diameter, in skin only. Kept clean and dressed with antibiotic ointment and dressings. Approx 1 month infection flared and wound grew to approx 4" in diameter - no bleeding, puss, bad smell, no softness in wound. Continued with cleaning, debrieding of callous around edge of wound. Minimal bleeding when removing hard tissue around edge of wound during this time. Traveled on 3/19 and I got sick (stomach flu), dressing changed only 3 times in 5 days. Dressing changed am on 3/24.

Tuesday 3/25 approx 6pm
Change of dressing found softness and small hole in wound. Using cotton swab, attempted to clean hole and determine size - large...size of grape at least. Dressed wound and left for emergency medical services (EMs)

Arrived at EMs approx 7pm, timely seen by Dr. He measured wound, added a dressing and prescribed oral antibiotics with instructions to see primary physician next day. Left at 8:10pm. Ran to Walmart to pick up antibiotic. Pharmacy closes at 8:30p. Got there in time and our Pharmacist had seen the faxed order and gotten it ready.