Home health nurses were here today! I requested in home pt, and they send nurses! /sigh/ pt comes tomorrow. They wanted to do all this stuff. It was kinda funny. No flu shot, no pneumonia shot, etc...
They were quite adamant they were changing the dressings and doing stuff ...ummm, nope you are not. No home health nursing, just home pt. My dressing is a new special type, stays in place til it falls off or 7 days. Water proof, has a self wicking center that pulls drainage away from the incision so it shows on the face of bandage. You do not change it until it's soaked threw like the pictures on the information sheet says....then you call the surgeons pa for instructions. Here my discharge papers that clearly state that.
They never heard of that! And wanted a copy of the informational sheet on it. So we made them copies!
And...they never had seen a bilateral. And couldn't wrap their heads around no staples or stitches...just glue and dissolving sutures! And I don't see a Dr for 4 weeks! WOW was their response when they read my discharge instructions. They got a different set of info for wound care than i received, they got the old info before the hospital changed to the new surgical care and new bandage system. I insisted on them calling the joint center to talk to the coordinator. She straightened everything out and told them I was correct with my info and that they had just swithced to a new protocal that week, and I was one of the first to have that dressing type. I swear I was educating THEM!
If my back didn't hurt when I elevated "toes above nose" then my legs wouldn't swell and I'd be golden poster child...and probably really really overdoing things. BTW...I have no formal restrictions....only "as tolerated" on everything. Surgeon says I can do whatever I want, as pain levels allow. I find that very unusual....maybe even a little unsettleing. Thankfully I found BS and became informed!