First Post on my Trip to the Hosptial

I have had foot ulcers continuously for nearly twenty years now. I started getting them soon after I retired back in 1996. Since that time I have had one after another. I have seen countless surgeons and podiatrists to try to heal them. About the time I get one healed, another one will open up. It just keeps going that way.

I have been self-treating myself, with the aid of my wife Suzanne, for years. I started doing this when the South Texas Medical Clinic in Wharton, Texas ran off the only surgeon there who knew what he was doing. They have a podiatrist, but I have no faith in his abilities and he has a terrible bedside manner. He is the kind of doctor who tries to make you feel stupid when he talks to you.

Anyway, Suzanne and I had been taking care of my wounds by changing the gauze every day and keeping the wounds clean. This worked out well until my toe started getting infected. On Sunday night, 28 October 2012, she and I came home. My big toe on my right foot had swollen up very large and it was very red. We decided I would call the doctor’s office the first thing Monday morning.

I got up at 8 AM and tried to call the doctor’s office, there was no answer. I kept trying throughout the day and still got no answer. I went to bed and tried the next day and got an answer. I asked to speak to my doctor’s nurse and I got put through to scheduling. I was told the first appointment available was that Thursday, 01 November 2012. I accepted that appointment and asked them to get in touch with my doctor to see if he would see me earlier. When I hung up, I called back and asked to speak with the doctor’s office. Again, they switched me to scheduling. I gave up and went to bed.

At my appointed time on 01 November 2012 I went to the doctor’s office. When I tried to check in downstairs, I was told I did not have an appointment. I was told I did have an appointment 08 November 2012. The desk tried to call upstairs to my doctor’s office, but the phone just rang and rang.

Suzanne pushed me upstairs in a wheel chair and we went to Dr. Winston’s office. Two receptionists were sitting talking to one another about a patient while the phones rang all around them. Suzanne explained to them that I needed to be seen right away, then Dr. Winston’s nurse came out and she had them work me in. I went to sleep in the wheel chair while Suzanne went downstairs to get me checked in.

Dr. Winston walked into the exam room and took one look at my toe. He said he could not treat me as an outpatient, so he sent me to Memorial Hermann Sugar Land. He is on the staff there and he told me to go to the emergency room. This was just before 11 AM. We picked up the kids at school and then went to Memorial Hermann Sugar  Land. We got there just before 1PM.

This story will be continued soon.

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