gory update

Some more news, ten days later… I have been operated once again as some tissues on my thumb were turning bad. The surgeon removed those tissues, checked the main vessels he had grafted ten days ago, and grafted tissues from other parts of my hand. This was a much lighter surgery than the first one and it did not last as long. I am now waiting  a few days to see whether this second step is successful (and prevents amputation).

leeches [another gory story]

Besides anticoagulant drugs, my postsurgery treatment involves leeches that stay on my thumb a few hours a day, sucking blood away and dispensing anticoagulants of their own. The hospital actually produces its own stock of leeches for this very purpose and most nurses are quite at ease with the procedure, even though a few seem reluctant to touch the animals. This morning I fell asleep during a leech visit and woke up to see it crawling across the corridor outside my bedroom, leaving a rather obvious trace on the ground…