[Magdalen] Health update.

[M J _Mike_ Logsdon]

Yesterday, at the exact two-week mark, my nurse friend removed my sutures, and we both concurred that we should have done it sooner.  Let's just say it took a while, and it hurt.  But it had to happen, and at least it wasn't surgery.  The interesting thing is, though perfectly sutured and in there for a considerable while, once she examined the spot closely, it was obvious that no healing had taken place; it was still a deep, raw hole from whence the chunk was extracted.  She was quick, and right, no doubt, to conclude it speaks to nothing less than the power of the vasculitis itself, and the slowness in healing characteristic to it.  Oh well, said I, it's not like I'm unfamiliar with dressing and caring for open wounds.  This, at least, is small, and on my thigh, up and away from the feet.

And speaking of the feet (and shins), the wounds on the shins continue to clearly show new flesh covering a smaller and smaller area.  And the pain there has been no more for weeks now.  The feet have more or less appeared to be behaving as always, namely, purely static; not appearing to get better, but definitely not getting worse.  Then over the last few days, I've had the notion, looking at them, that maybe, just maybe they're starting to fall in line with the shins, and slowly but surely heal.  One does hope.  The pain does remain, but less so, and the chronic swelling of the last year has all but ceased.  That surprises me a lot, because one assumes my circulation is still bad.  But maybe the gout medication I'm on for the vasculitis is having a more comprehensive effect than I expected.  I'd focused so much on how the nodules appear to be no longer spreading, or at least not significantly, with existing ones getting noticeably smaller, -- that it hadn't dawned on me that gout medication would obviously have some effect on foot swelling.  Oh well.  Learn something, eh?