First, my wife's appointment with the surgeon was great. My wife will definitely have the PICC removed after her last infusion on Friday morning.

We were concerned that the infusions may be extended because of the trough indicating an increase in Vancomyacin was necessary. Initially, we thought because it was not enough at first, it may lead to more than 10 days but, no more worries about this....it comes out Friday morning.

Also, initially we were told it would be 6-8 weeks but after only one week, she may return to work in as little as 3 weeks...if all goes well and the wounds heal that quickly.

Add to all of this, the surgeon also gave us a tube of IODOSORB Gel which is a Cadexomer Iodine meant to clean wounds, reducing micrbial load in the wound as well as absorbption of the wetness from the wounds. This is ordinarily $40 a tube...

We were told Jennie is healing quite well and we've introduced a totally new way of life. She has already started wearing Nicotine patches to quit smoking and she's doing great with this. Jennie has also realized her mortality and for those of us who have, we know how important and how much change this can bring to a person.

Dietary changes include stressing the intake of protein, a major source for healing these kinds of wounds as well as light, fat free, sugar free yogurt...also helping healing of these kinds of wounds.

The removal of high sugars, fats, etc, from Jennie's diet is also in the works...this will take some time but, ALL of this is an answer to prayer for me. For years I've watched my wife slowly kill herself by smoking, eating poorly and generally not taking an interest in her health....Well, that has all changed and she has initiated those changes from hearing the doctors stress this, repeatedly...one doctor after another.

What I find odd is nurses and some doctors smoke and eat poorly and at times, even worse than poorly because of missing meals due to their schedules.

Today has been a great day and finally, some rest of worrying about so many things....of course, the concern for my wife's health will continue but now, it's not as intense due to being told so many good things about how well she is doing...

It's amazing but this morning my wife woke with saying her pain was a 7 on the pain scale...Then, later today, ater having the wounds cleaned. examined, and then packed with the Iodosorb by the surgeon, seems to have given Jennie a spark that I haven't seen in far too long....a day is too long AFAIC.

Add to the above, we are going get assistance from one of the resources I called yesterday. This too, in part, has allowed for a stress-free afternoon.

I want to thank you all again, for your help, prayers and continued prayers as well as for reaching out to my family with your empathy and love.

My wife is not out of the woods yet but there is a definite path she's on, that we can see clearly and will lead her out of the woods, so to speak...
Missionaries are perfect nuisances and leave every place worse than they found it.
Charles Dickens