Day 413: Great Toes!

Sunday, October 26th, 2008 - Madeline had both her big toes (called ‘great toes’ by medical professionals) operated on last Monday to remove infections from the sides of her nails that were not going away. This began in early June with a slight ingrown toenail that would not get better.

We tried soaking three or more times per day in hot water, hot water plus Epsom salts, hot water with antibacterial soaps, hot water and hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen peroxide straight, smothering her toes in triple antibiotics and Bactroban*, still the infection persisted and other infections began. Since she has a low white blood cell count, this was not a good thing. If she had been close to her end date for her protocol, the surgeons would have waited until after to do the surgery. But it’s over a year away, they did the surgery now.

This required some safeguards though: a dose of antibiotics into her blood stream before the surgery, one during the surgery and 10 days of antibiotic pills surrounding the surgery. She also had to have a minimum number of white blood cells when tested immediately prior to the operation.

Because it's pretty painful, it is unusual to have both toes operated on at the same time, but given the strict protocol surrounding surgery for her, we opted for the 2 for 1 special. The inconvenience of this is that she cannot walk, so she has been at home with me this week and it’s been fun having her here.

After five days, the bandages came off yesterday... and we all agreed that halloween came early. Back to soaking a few times a day for the next few weeks. -ca

I was there when Chris took the bandages off, and neither she nor Mady would let me take photos of the un-bandaged zombie toes.

Probably a good thing, I guess. :-)

*Bactroban, or Mupirocin, is not too far from the antibiotic of last resort. Kind of scary. -tk