foot update (blood-stopper test)

I confess that I was in too much of a rush this morning—thanks to final food prep—to take a shower, so I was unable to provide you, Dear Reader, with photos of a washed diabetic foot with blood stopper covering two wounds. I had hoped to use the shower as a test for the blood stopper, a way to see how well it can perform in different situations.

So I thought of another test: I decided to wear my regular shoes (the sandals were starting to hurt, anyway). I washed and re-bandaged my toe, and I left my foot inside my shoe all day long without checking anything until I got back in the evening.

And this is what I saw:

Compared to the bloody horror show that was yesterday, that tiny blood spot is really not that bad. One reason for performing the shoes-on test was to try to provoke bleeding because I know that pressure from walking has, in the past, caused the blood to flow, even from an ulcer that has become a lot "quieter" over the past couple of weeks. So I walk more or less normally when I'm wearing my walking shoes; I don't try to curl my toes up to keep them off the floor, and all of this makes a bleed nearly inevitable. I was curious to see whether the blood stopper would prevent all bleeding, and as we see above, the answer is no: it's not a perfect seal. At the same time, though, it's pretty damn good. So if you ever find yourself with a bleeder, have some blood-stopper powder on hand. It works. Anyway, I pulled off my sock to look at the bandage, and...

Again, that's really not bad at all. As things were before I visited D&F Hospital for the first time, it looks almost as if the blood somehow remained behind the bandage before magically teleporting through it and into my sock.

And here's how the toe looks now, blood stopper and all:

Some dried blood on the periphery (I took this shot before cleaning the wound), some powdery residue from when I first dumped the blood stopper onto the wound, and note that the ulcer itself, despite looking a bit wet and raw, isn't filled with blood. Can blood stopper aid my healing in the same way that burn cream can? I'm all sorts of curious. For now, my washing routine is just soap and water, and I continue to take my antibiotics. I will also keep the wound bandaged and, to the extent possible, my toe raised off the floor/ground. I'm seriously considering just switching treatment to my local doctor (naegwa jeonmun: internal-medicine specialist); he can prescribe similar antibiotic meds, and he might even be able to prescribe the same burn cream (or a similar one). And I'm pretty sure he'd do nothing more than look at my wound without trying to fuck with it.

For the moment, at least, I think I'm in a fairly good situation. With my cheat day ticking down to the last few minutes, it's just a matter of going hard on the no-sugar thing. I want to get back to distance walking as soon as possible. Meanwhile, the staircase training continues, and one of these days, I'll get off my lazy ass and pump up my bicycle tires.