Note: Update on wound. When I went to the Wound Care Clinic on Monday March 28, Jeannine found my wound to be much improved! Yay!! I was very pleased. The debridement seemed to be more painful than before, but knowing that it’s working, made it worth it. Because of the improvement, my appointments are only once a week through April.

From the beginning of treatment for my wound, Jeannine has been telling me that what I do at home determines how quickly healing takes place. Her advice: eat more protein because it helps promote healing, put my legs up often during the day and even at night because there is still some edema, which does not help healing, wash with anti-bacterial soap whenever changing the dressing, and change the dressing every other or, even better, every day. And she gave me even more supplies that I will need.

To help make it easier for me to sleep at night with legs elevated, I decided that I could insert pillows under the bottom sheet as Jeannine suggested. That would hold the pillows in place and I could keep my legs up all night. The only problem is I’m a side-sleeper. I don’t like sleeping on my back. But I thought I’d give it a try

Also, I’ve got a king-sized bed. Actually, it’s two twin beds put together. Since Groucho, my long-time companion, has been gone since January 4, I’ve thought about putting it back to two twins. Groucho liked to take his half out of the middle, so the king worked best for us. Since I don’t have to do that anymore, I had decided to make the change. Also, it works better when I have house guests. I usually give up my bedroom and sleep on my futon couch in my office.

After I stripped the bed and divided it into two, I started looking for the twin bedding. It’s been a couple years since I’d last seen it. And, even worse, I reorganized nearly everything in the house during the Covid lockdown in 2020. So, I kept looking in the wrong places. It took awhile, but I finally found everything and put each item as I found it on each bed.

And I had a pile of king-sized bedding to be laundered before packing away. Besides the sheets, there were the blankets, mattress pad, and throw to be washed. And I needed to shake out and air fluff the bedspread in the dryer before packing away. After awhile, everywhere I looked was a giant mess. Changing the bed had turned into a major project.

I had planned to do laundry that day, anyway. So, I got my usual four loads sorted. With all the added bedding, I now had a total of seven loads. Wow!

And when I started pulling everything out from under the bed(s), I discovered dust bunnies––lots of dust bunnies. Before going any farther, I got out broom and dustpan and cleaned under the beds and then the floor of the whole bedroom. Again and again throughout the day, I cleaned dust and dust bunnies off of everything that had been under the beds.  

I rediscovered the new bedspreads I had bought for the twin beds that were still in their original packaging. So nice and new but full of wrinkles, which will eventually disappear. And I had to find two standard-sized pillows to put into the new shams, which were part of each bedspread set. Fitting pillows into sham covers is such fun. I swear, they make them one size smaller than what is needed just to make it difficult––always a battle. But I managed it without ripping any seams.

Following Jeannine’s advice, when I made up the twin that I would be sleeping in, I put my leg-elevating pillows under the bottom sheet, so I could elevate legs easily anytime, including at night. Nothing fits quite right when you have a giant bump in the middle of a small bed. But I kept working at it and it’s okay. Strange but okay!

That night, I discovered that when you have covers that fit snugly over the feet on top of the pillows, it scrunches the toes––totally uncomfortable. Besides, I don’t like sleeping on my back. I tolerated it for about 20 minutes. Then the pillows were forcefully removed. It just didn’t work for me.

Now, I’m back to having the pillows on the top of the bed during the day with a throw to put over me, which is exactly what I’ve been doing since starting treatment of my wound. So, I really didn’t need to divide into two beds because of my wound. But it gave me an excuse to change the beds, which I had wanted to do anyway.

I’m glad it’s done. But what a chore. It took a good chunk of the day. Once again, I discovered that changing the bed can be so much more than just changing the bed. Whew!