Father’s Day Edition
It was a hot and balmy day in Southern Nevada, as I was entering my last year of my undergraduate studies at the university, obviously not in science, when I learned that gangrene was not a disease that you only heard about in movies, but a real infection that plagues thousands of people in the United States each year. And at 22 years of age, I came face to face with the hard ugly truth about the importance of wound care, or the lack thereof.
8 years ago I spent what would be my last father’s day with my best friend, hero, mentor, all of the adjectives used to describe my dad. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the long 9 months that made up the last year of our lives together. What started out as a small “not to worry about, just keep it clean” ulcer on the back of my father’s paralyzed leg, turned into a massive gangrenous open wound that no one in my family was prepared for.
At the time, there were only two certified wound care nurses in the area that had the knowledge and credentials to properly care for my dad’s wound after a strenuous surgery. However, one was on maternity leave, and the other was on vacation. Twelve days we waited. 288 hours and some change until finally like a saving grace the wound care nurse was back, and she could apply negative pressure wound therapy.
Throughout the next 9 months, I spent my time from one rehabilitation center to another, because not a single one in the area specialized in non-healing wounds. Getting to know how each chair felt, the quality of the TV while watching Sunday football, but most heartbreakingly, I spent my time watching my father’s health decline as the unhealed wound wreaked havoc on the rest of his body without being able to do a thing about it.
On March 17th I no-showed at my spring midterms.
It is because of him, some elbow grease hitting the books again for a graduate degree. And just maybe a little bit of fate, if one believes, that I found my way into wound care after being a secondary English teacher. My mission now is to help educate, spread awareness, and ultimately show people the importance of wound care, because no one deserves to lose a limb or a loved one to a chronic wound.
