Meet Hana Health

Today dawned beautifully (after a lot of rain yesterday and last night) but brought with it a new problem: The IV site from my emergency room visit had become infected (even though it had been cleaned and bandaged by the ER nurse). Worse, my bad leg—the scarred one that suffered from flesh-eating bacteria— felt as if it was infected. It was bright red, and my foot was horribly swollen. So, another medical visit seemed prudent. But I wasn't willing to drive 2 hours to Kahului to return to Maui Memorial (especially after the awful experience I'd had there, with the infected IV site just adding injury to insult. So I decided to try the local Hana Health place even though it seemed very small.

Today dawned beautifully (after a lot of rain yesterday and last night).

but brought with it a new problem: The IV site from my emergency room visit had become infected (even though it had been cleaned and bandaged by the ER nurse). Worse, my bad leg—the scarred one that suffered from flesh-eating bacteria— felt as if it was infected. It was bright red, and my foot was horribly swollen.

I do the hydrogen peroxide therapy (i've been on it for well over a decade) which is supposed to prevent infections. And it does! But I had been a little lax taking it and had missed a few nights—starting, of course, with the bout of food posioning that sent me to Maui Memorial's Emergency Room. (You can't drink the solution if you can't keep anything down.)

My reverie was interrupted by my grandtoddlers Dominic and Gianna, who were staying on property (making them part of our quarantine group).

I love for them to come visit, and it's especially adorable to see them hiking up the trail to their cabin with such strength and confidence. This is a perfectly safe place, despite it's wild appearance. So it's a wonderful opportunity for them to fall in love with nature.

And to think that, just a couple of months ago, Gianna wouldn't touch beach sand with her toes; she required socks.

In any case, by now my leg was bad enough that I decided another medical visit seemed prudent. But I wasn't willing to drive 2 hours to Kahului to return to Maui Memorial (especially after the awful experience I'd had there, with the infected IV site just adding injury to insult. So I decided to try the local Hana Health place even though it seemed very small.

The difference between Maui Memorial and Hana Health were like night and day. Of course, Maui Memorial serves a far greater population than Hana Health. But my experience at Maui Memorial had me never wanting to return there; and my experience at Hana Health made me want to go back just to hang out!

As with Maui Memorial, I had to wear a mask (the receptionist and triage nurse gave me one), had my temperature taken (normal), and had to wait outside until I could be seen. But there was only one other patient, and my wait was brief.

My doctor is Victoria Wolfgramm. She accidentally began to introduce herself as Vicky but corrected herself, which I found to be charming. And, in fact, she is charming. She manages to exude sympathy at a level I've never before experienced. And I have never felt so heard. She really listened! It was basically like having an El-Aurian doctor.

Anyway, Dr. Wolfgramm heard my story, examined the hot spots on my leg, and handed me a prescription of doxycycline, a wide-spectrum antibiotic. I did express my thought that I might need an intravenous antibiotic. But she suggested I take the doxycycline, and predicted it would be almost all better in two days. She also pointed out I am only ten minutes away and could call any time day or night if my leg were to not respond to the antibiotic.

As we returned home I was again stuck by the incredible beauty of the place we were fortunate enough to be sheltering in place at.

Our 5 gallon water bottle was empty, so Jenny and Dominic came down to our neighbor Chris's property, where there's a water tank we've been invited to use until our own water supply is available, to fill our bottle for us. For some reason, the dogs particularly like to visit the water tank.

We timed it so Keith aznd I could take a shower afzterwards, which is the other thing we do at the tank. We keep our toiletries in that canvas szhopping bag.

And, since I was up anzyway, I drazgged one of the dog crates to serve as a table for the dishpan. There's actually a proper camping sink upstairs, and I do intend to bring it down and get it working.

But not today. My foot, despite my having taken the first dose of antibiotic, was seriously swollen and painful.

Keith, bless his heart, made dinner while I rested with my leg up. I took the second antibiotic and crossed my fingers that my leg would, indeed, show improvement in the morning.