Halo Still On

Becky writes: Today was one of the worst since I have been home. I went to the Doctor today anticipating that he would remove my halo brace, and that instead i would get to wear a soft-side and plastic neck brace for the next few weeks while my broken neck finished healing. It didn't happen. I will continue to wear the metal halo, with all its limitations, through at least June 14th.

The problem is the humongeous wound on the back of my head from the Feb 27th accident. Apparently they stitched up the v-shaped gash, 4 inches across and 2 inches down, right away. No one ever mentioned it again or addressed wound care, as I had lots of other medical problems to worry about, and of course I can't see anything back there with the halo on.

Then last Saturday as Al was trying to comb my hair (he never does, only the hired personal aide that tries to shampoo me around the halo, quite a feat) he noticed that the hair was all stuck together and matted down, that the wound scab had partly torn open, that there was a raw wound oozing in the back of my head. He called to visiting nurse service ( I HAVE NO NURSE, JUST THE PERSONAL AIDE) and said "My wife's scalp is falling off". That got their attention. A nurse came right way, lifted as much hair out as she could, trimmed my hair all over (it needed it), explained that it was normal for the wound "shell" to hardened and then fall away, but advised us to just monitor untill I got to the doctor on Wednesday. I lost a little blood and tissue on my pillow each night.

So today the doctor said my neck was healing fine, but he couldm't switch me down to a collar because the collar will rub right on the wound. Instead I am going to a plastic surgeon Friday for evaluation, and it is likely they will have anesthetize me and clean the dead material out of the wound before it can begin to heal properly. Meantime, I don't see the spinal cord doc again until June 15th.

I came home and just cried and cried.