After talking with Nancy Holberg-Caster Wednesday using the cell phone of one of the Willow Creek librarians, I decided to head for Fort Bragg. Had planned to spend the night at the Jackson Demonstration Forest, Camp One campground, but I either didn't read the directions in Tom Stienstra's Guide to West Coat RV Camping correctly or I was too slow to set my whiz-bang mileage guage for Trip B from Willits to Camp One.
Before I realized it I was out of the Jackson Demo Forest and near enough to Fort Bragg to continue on to Eleanor Lemmon Dahl Holberg's place off of Simpson Lane. Here's what her daughter Nancy had sent regarding a serious leg infection or wound.
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Guess you hadn't heard about Mom's leg. Sorry, I've lost track of who knew about the leg incident.
In January she scraped her leg on the metal hospital bed she sleeps in. The abrasion was about the size of a quarter and scabbed over but didn't heal so Don took her to her MD. The MD called in an associate surgeon to take a look and that MD decided to scrape the scab off.
Home Health began visits to the house to clean and dress the wound 3x/week. They insisted upon a tight bandage and when Don asked about the tight wrap they said it would encourage healing. After two weeks of that and an open sore that had grown to about 2x5" Don brought Mom to the emergency room on 2/4/11. They didn't know what to do about the non-healing open wound and tried to get her into one of the larger Bay Area hospitals, but, nobody wanted a 95 year old lady.
So, they stuck her into a room in the Mendocino Coast Hospital in FtBragg. Several MD's visited her room and looked at the wound (it looked like a topographic map of a valley, with the valley floor being her shin bone and ligaments). Finally about 3 days there a wound-care nurse visited and called in an orthopedic surgeon and he did a large skin graft. The graft took and she spent one month in the hospital, going home on her 96th birthday. There were two small holes still present when she went home, but, in comparison, much better.
The source of her problem is that her heart isn't pumping the blood with enough pressure to reach her feet and back up again. The sore couldn't heal because she was sitting most of the day in her wheelchair. In order to heal she's had to stay in the bed with short stints in a recliner.
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The good news now is that her wound is only about the size of a couple of dimes. In fact, here's a photo of her saying "Cheese!" for the cameraman. [Click 1 or 2 times to zoom in!]
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Links:
- Jackson State Forest
- Wikipedia article on Fort Bragg
F 24 Jun Actual Route: Scotia - Garberville - Leggett - Laytonville - Willits - Ft Bragg
Sa 25 Jun Actual Route: Ft Bragg
Su 26 Jun Route: Ft Bragg - Camp One, Jackson Demo Forest
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