Update on Lori Beth

Well a lot has changed since I first posted about my best friend Lori Beth Walker. I flew up here yesterday (Wed) to surprise her and will be here for a week. I couldn't handle calling her everyday and hearing her cry....so luckily my wonderful hubby said, "why don't you go up there?" So..needless to say I took him up on that offer! :-) She was completely surprised when I walked in her hospital room yesterday..it was so great...we just bawled together! Then...you won't believe what happened. Her podiatrist (foot specialist) comes in everyday to undress her wound check about it & redress it. I was a little nervous about seeing the "raw" wound, but thought I would sneak a little peak. And I am here to tell you it was DISGUSTING. I almost wish I could take a picture of it and put it on here to stress to ya'll the torment LB is going through! But if your stomach is like my husbands, you'd pass out! :-) But I will describe it to you. It's an oval shaped opening about the size of a large egg on top of her right foot, completely open, muscle, tissue, tendon and all right there with no skin on top b/c the staph ate it away!!! Well yesterday when the DR came in to undress her wound he found the suture he had done on her tendon on Tuesday had come apart!!! So he decided along with LB that he would just suture that thing back together right there in her room!!! Unfortunately, Josh had gone to get us supper and take care of some things at the house so since I was there I got to hold her hand through this process. The doctor and his resident injected her ankle with a local anesthetic to numb her foot, then they got the tendon coming up from her big toe and the other part coming down from her ankle and basically hooked a wire or something through the end of one & the end of the other and tightened up that wire thing to bring the two pieces together. I want you to know I was on one side of LB sitting on her toilet holding her hand (which did turn purple) and the nurse was on the other side pumping more pain medicine in LB. With my other hand that wasn't purple I held up a pillow so LB couldn't see what was going on....keep in mind she was AWAKE through them tugging on her tendon pulling hard to bring them together so they will stay close to one another until her surgery tomorrow (Friday) to permanently fix the tendon. It was the most nasty thing I have ever seen. When I called Ryan last night and told him I watched this from 2 feet away and I couldn't believe I didn't pass out....his reply was, "that's because your part boy!!!" :-) He's such a comedian right? I'll also have you know, Lori Beth didn't shed a tear through this...ya'll I knew she was strong but my word....that was incredible! I think we have now determined that she is part boy! ;-) So...as of today the suture has stayed in place, the wound looked well, meaning the infection is cleaning up. The bad news is that after an MRI today they think she may have infection in her bone. This is not confirmed but will be tomorrow once infectious disease & another radiologist look at everything. If she does have it in her bone, they still need to repair the tendon and close up the wound and put a wound vac on it, b/c the outer skin needs to heal before the bone can. So surgery to do all that is tomorrow at 11:30. Pray that this surgery will do the trick and there will be no complications. Lori has been such a good sport through all this. She doesn't deserve to go through this at all much less any more bad news. On a good note she did get a bath in a BATH TUB today, and she did a little microdermabrasion on her face, satin lips, and washed AND blow dried her hair!!! She was feelin' good after that! That was compliments of the physical therapy bath tub I spotted down the hall...she was a good girl so they let her use it! :-) I guess that's all I have for now...just please keep her on your prayer list...this isn't' even close to being over. Thanks.....KK