Dom's Toe Drama

 Dom's was diagnosed with a diabetic ulcer in his left toe on January 20th.    It seems Dom and I can't catch a break with our health issues.    For Dom his issue started with a check up at a local clinic that he goes to that is free for teachers.   It's definitely a nice benefit since teachers don't make a lot of money.   They do the most basic checks and they have a limited supply of medications but nonetheless it's been a godsend for him especially with his meds since he pays a lower cost for them.

Anyway I previously mentioned that he had an appointment on December 20th.    The care physician at the clinic did his blood work and then decided to look at his feet.    To his shock the physician discovered that his left toe had a cut in it and appeared to be very swollen.   She prescribed him some antibiotics as well as some mupirocin ointment to apply to his wound.    She gave him a podiatrist to follow up with.

So yours truly was assigned to help Dom soak his feet in hopes of healing his wound.   We did this twice a day though some mornings he opted to soak his feet in the shower.    He had an appointment with a podiatrist on January 6th.   He told Dom that the care physician gave him the wrong antibiotics and prescribed another one.   He also thought Dom had a toe infection stemming for his toe nail so he removed the toe nail under local anesthesia and dressed the wound.

Similar to our previous regimen, he suggested we continue to soak the toe and change the dressing.   He scheduled a follow-up appointment for January 20th.    So Dom goes back on the 20th, he mentioned that the doctor took a Q-tip and managed to push it deep inside his wound.   At that point the podiatrist diagnosed Dom with a diabetic ulcer and told him he needed to immediately go to the hospital to get it removed.   He feared that the infection may have spread to the bone and told Dom he'd have to be in the hospital for at least one week.

Dom drove back home and after we had dinner, I drove him to our favorite ER around 7:30 PM.   The ER room itself wasn't as packed as it was when I unfortunately was there New Year's Eve.   We waited about 40 minutes before Dom got his vitals done and then registered.   Another 30 minutes later we were ushered to a treatment room inside the ER.    He was immediately set up with a stint in his lower arm for a series of IV's, including more antibiotics.     The hope was to fight off the infection immediately.

The hospital was pretty much full and it would be a long wait before Dom was able to get a room.   I stayed with him until 3:45 AM when he insisted I go back home to get some rest.   I didn't want to leave him but I didn't want him to be upset.    I was reminded of a time when I drove Papa and Mama to the ER because Papa wasn't feeling well.    After waiting a long time we all were directed to a treatment room and Mama and I stayed overnight with Papa until he got a room around 10:30 in the morning.

Dom called me around 8:30 AM to tell me that he got a room around 7AM.   I went to see Dom later on Friday and found him in good spirits.     He was on multiple antibiotics and was taking a lot of different tests to determine the severity of his infection.     There was a possibility that they wouldn't be able to save his toe.   The infection did indeed spread to his bones which was why he was on antibiotics.   

His podiatrist originally mentioned that they would do a procedure to remove the ulcer Monday afternoon.    It wound up being done early Monday morning.    Overall everything went well and they were able to save his toe.    Part of his medical team included an infectious disease specialist so there were more tests that specialist had done and depending on the results, that would determine when Dom can come home.    Once Dom is home, though, it seems he may have to be off work for yet another week.    He may not have enough days to cover being off for so long.   Uggh.

A bright spot to his saga was that of course they tested him for COVID.   His test came back NEGATIVE once more.    It almost gave credence to the theory that my test may have been a false positive.   President Biden mentioned that the federal government is providing every household with four free COVID tests by the end of January.    The plan is for us to use two of the tests when we receive them to retest.    I'm hoping obviously that I'll have a NEGATIVE result.    On the bright side I continued to not have any symptoms of COVID.    So I'm hopeful that my results will be NEGATIVE.

2022 so far is proving to have a crazy start for us.   But on the bright side I start my new job on the 31st.   My increased income should help us in the event Dom loses his due to time off from work.   I'm going to continue to work weekends at Amazon for a few more weeks.   Sometime in February Amazon is going to have their annual "Pay To Quit" program where they basically pay you up to $5000 (based on number of peak seasons you've worked).   I've worked three peak seasons so should be getting $3000 (before taxes of course).    I was going back and forth on whether to take it or not.   The main stipulation if you accept the "Pay To Quit" offer is that you are barred from ever working at Amazon or any of their subsidiaries.    Unfortunately the company I'm going to work has a partnership with Amazon.    I was fearing if there ever came a day that Amazon decided to buy out my company (though my future company is a giant corporation as well so it likely won't happen) that I would lose my job there.   But I am reassured that I would have a separate hiring contract with my future company and that it would hold precedence.    So it's just a matter of waiting for Amazon to kick off the program.    Honestly though it's getting harder for me to motivate myself to go work there especially with my new job.   Not that it ever was easy motivating myself to pick and pack items at Amazon.   The good thing is that I should be in the "honeymoon phase" of the new job for a few weeks and I'll be working remote so I should be able to manage both jobs until I can take Amazon's offer to quit which I'm hoping will be sooner rather than later.