Another visit to the clinic to get Joes wounds cleaned up and dressed. Again pretty much the same story e.g. evidence that the wounds are healing slowly. The big gaping hole looks to be the one that is healing best, but really I need to take a picture of it to compare with the shot taken last Friday. The exit wound looked different today, there's a messay area which would, if left to the air, scab over and form a big deep scab. The process of re-dressing the wound means that they cover it with the special cotton wool/seaweed stuff, which then absorbs the blood tissue, but this then has to be removed and as they do so it pulls away any of the scabbing as such. So of the two wounds the 'Better looking' of the two looked as though it was worse this time, but that may only be due to the fact that it's very clean and you can see the extent of the damage to the skin? Re-assuringly though, the nurse said that it's going okay and there wasn't any evidence of any sceptic or poisoning issues.
On the pain front, Joe was in the usual amount of pain, maybe slightly more, but it's relatively short lived, only for the duration as they removed the old dressings. Overall in himself he's good, he gets fed up not doing anything and not being able to get around, but more and more he feels better and yesterday he was asking if he could put some weight on his bad leg and I've had to say no. Additionally he moves around now with far more confidence and the panic attacks have gone as far as I can tell. Speaking to a bloke at work he was saying that we should make him aware that the damaged leg is going to lose all it's muscle and bulk and will be skinny and weak once out of the cast. He said that no-one had mentioned this when he was younger and that when the cast came off he was a bit traumatised at the way his leg looked making him feel like he wouldn't ever return to fitness. I also asked another bloke at work who rides motorbikes and has as usual had an array of accidents breaking bones all over his body and he was saying that he too had previously broken the bones in the same part of the body as well as both ankles and this had never affected his ability to play sports and his breaks were done in his 20's and 30's. So, that was re-assuring. I showed him the blog and the pic's and again he said 'He's young - everything is on his side for a good and full recovery', but one of the things that will help him is by keeping positive, that'll aid his return to full fitness.
