Qupdate

Okay, just a quick update here. Been a rough couple of weeks. I was a good bit more sick than I was letting on, even to myself. Well, bone infections make you pretty sick, so that's to be expected.

The IV antibiotics don't make you feel so hot either.

However, it wasn't that long ago that bone infections made you dead, and there weren't any antibiotics.

It's important to keep a sense of scale, context and perspective.

Here's a pic of my new picc line. The fellow who put it in graduated four years ahead of me at good ol' Kimball Reform School, then ran off and joint the navy and became a corpsman. He spent his naval service with the Marines. It's a big world, but there are a lot of big connections.

Anyway, I had a bit of a breakthrough yesterday. I'll not go into extreme gory detail (I'll throw in a video for that) but let's say that the pressure that had been building in my heel bone was relieved. The pain went away almost instantly and I began feeling less sick right away. Last night I actually slept a full, restful night's sleep for the first time in a long while.

This morning I feel giddy -- almost drunk -- with wellness. Or at least not-sickness.

I feel certain that the many thoughts, prayers and well wishes have been playing a central role in the healing process. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am blessed.

So, pre-op visit in the morning, then surgery on Friday.

I would guess, given yesterday's breakthrough, that the surgery timing will be just about right. I feel like my immune system is gaining strength and gaining the upper hand. The debridement will take care of necrotic tissue and remove all the old hardware and suture material (aka bacteria apartment complexes) and the post-op healing should be quick and straightforward.

I could be wrong, of course, and I don't want to count all my chickens before they hatch, but after yesterday I'm feeling pretty good about the outcome.

Thanks again to all you kind people out there. As a token of my appreciation, let me share a video. This is the procedure (more or less) that I had back in 2007. There are calcaneal debridement videos out there, but they're pretty gross.

Well, I guess this one is too. I won't feel bad if you don't watch it. For a corpsman it's pretty fascinating, but we tend to be strange that way.