I'm seeing the doc this coming Friday for both my toe and my general health (BP, blood sugar, probable A1c, insulin, triglycerides, etc.). I also have to get more pills. The toe continues to leak; I think I said earlier that I can expect to go through a frustrating June as the wound dwindles. The earliest I can hope for the leaking to stop will be, I predict, sometime in July or maybe August. This is the maddening final stage of healing, and it's dragging on and on.
To put what you're about to see in perspective: the bandage you see over the wound in the first picture has a prominent dot on it, but that's because I'd worn that bandage for over 24 hours before removing it. Even at that level of saturation, I no longer worry about leaving blood spots on my floor. So the amount of leakage you're seeing shouldn't be alarming.
The second photo shows you both the wound itself and the bandage's interior. Again, keep in mind that I wore this bandage longer than I usually do (today is a national holiday, and I've been lazy about changing the dressing). The blackness around the center of the wound is just dried fluid (probably a mixture of blood, lymph, and other things). The fluid dries and makes the wound look ugly, but this is analogous, I think, to scab formation on a regular wound. It certainly doesn't indicate gangrene from necrotic tissue. Gangrene, from what I understand, carries a very unpleasant and unmistakable fetor with it, and I'm pretty sure any gangrene would rapidly consume the whole toe.
The final pic is the usual glorious closeup of the wound. Click on the image to enlarge, then right-click on that image (→ "Open Image in New Tab") to see everything at full size.
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| wound leakage—peekaboo |
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| Even after 24-plus hours, only a couple drops' worth of fluid. |
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| Stare at it long enough, and you get hungry. |
As I mentioned earlier, my current policy is Don't fuck with it, so I'm not clipping away any of the blackened skin for fear that I might actually impede the healing process. This close to the end, I don't want to do anything that delays or prevents me from reaching my goal: a fully healed toe, with no more dark talk of amputation.
It will be interesting to hear what the doctor has to say. To my unqualified eyes, it looks like a slow but sure healing process. Hopefully, it closes up all the way soon, and you can get back to posting pictures of the countryside, er, I mean, hiking!
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