toe update and reparadigming

Yesterday's heavy bleed prompted my Korean coworker to seek out some blood-stopping powder. While I had some notion of how the powder worked, I still had to read up on the specifics because I had plenty of questions: can you wash yourself while using the powder? How long should the product stay in your wound? Does it prevent infection? Etc., etc.

Here's what a blood-stopped toe looks like:

I was surprised to see that the powder eventually lived up to its name. It did ultimately stop the bleeding, but the effect took a while to take hold. From what I found out when reading about American versions of this powder, (1) you're supposed to leave it in the wound to allow for natural scabbing to occur; (2) the powder, once solidified into a gel, is supposed to remain in place, and it will fall off naturally when there's been enough healing; and (3) yes, you can wash yourself with the gel in place. I'm about to take a shower, so I'll be testing whether the blood stopper actually works as advertised. If it does, I'll give the wound a light dressing, mainly to keep it away from dirt, and I'll continue to wear my mutilated sandals plus toe cap (which turns out to be necessary because my toe does occasionally touch the ground despite my sandals' thick soles). If there's more bleeding, I can apply more powder (before leaving work last night, I stopped by my building's pharmacy and got a second bottle of blood stopper to take home; I often double up my medical supplies this way).

Blood stopper is a plant-based material that somehow stimulates a platelet reaction in your body, encouraging the rapid formation of scabs. With the blood stopper in place, I'm not supposed to apply any creams, lotions, or ointments to the affected region, so my self-care regimen has to change. Basically, I'll just be watching the wounds as they heal, and I'll continue to take my prescribed antibiotics.

I guess I stopped bleeding sometime yesterday evening. When I got home at night and pulled my bandages off, the wound looked as you see in the above photo, and there was no new blood. So that answered the sleep question: I was able to get a decent night's sleep without worrying about bleeding through my sheets and onto my mattress (for which I had the foresight, a couple years ago, to buy a plastic mattress cover to prevent things like surprise urination and defecation as I get older).

While I feel calmer and less angry today about the doctor's botched job on my foot, I'm still not ready to contemplate going back to that hospital. Basic trust has been violated. I'll think about going back, but at this point, my feeling is: What's the point? I can probably have my local doc continue to prescribe the appropriate meds.

I'm also wondering how the blood stopper relates to my original diabetic toe wound. The powder's in there now, and while the blood stopper is supposed to stimulate healing, I have to wonder whether it was designed for such a wound. If necessary, there are ways of removing the gelled blood stopper, but for the moment, I'm just going to let things take their course. The oral antibiotics ought to be enough to prevent a toe infection. We'll see.