(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Saturday Top Comments: I went swimming this morning [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-11-04 Or at least that’s what WOULD have been the title. The more accurate title should be “Why won’t you DIE?” So now some backstory after some words from Our Sponsor. Here at Top Comments we welcome longtime as well as brand new Daily Kos readers to join us at 10pm Eastern. We strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site's best, funniest, most mojo'd & most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail or to the Top Comments group mailbox by 9:30pm Eastern. Please please please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find! For quite some time, I had open wounds on either one or both my legs. A couple of years at least. My legs have really brittle skin, so any little bump can break skin. Add lymph edema to that, and there are some issues. Type two being in remission doesn’t immediately end all physical effects. The more weight I lose, the less edema I will have, but as I age, that might not be likely anymore. And when I get a wound in the lower part of my legs, sometimes it develops depth. Long story short, I’ve been trying to get rid of these recurring wounds on my legs for a LONG time. How do pools intersect? Well, my favorite form of exercise is lap swimming. Plus, if I know a swim is coming, I’ll go to the exercise place and do walk/run, stationary bike, and finish with a swim. In other words, I train. I train to race again. Cause nothing beats a triathlon high. But that’s another diary. But I digress. Around the middle of May, when I last saw my primary, I finally asked for a referral to the wound/ostomy clinic. It had been a while since I had been there last (2018) and technology had advanced. For instance, artificial skin grafts have been developed to heal such wounds super fast. Unfortunately, it took MONTHS for said grafts to be approved. So I had to do things the old fashioned way, but with new tech. Number one, the standard dressing was a two layer compression dressing that you had to keep on unless it fell because shrinkage of the leg, or it rolled and cut circulation. Then you were allowed to cut it off. Number two, the physical therapy part of the care, or “pulse lavage”. The new tech was using a saline almost mist that was enhanced by ultrasound waves to clean the wound area to help speed healing. And the two layer dressing was applied after each visit, whether it be to the wound doctor (he would scrape all around the wound to get stuff off. It hurt despite lidocaine) or the pulse lavage. So that has been my summer and autumn since May: Wound clinic, physical therapy. Then three weeks ago, when the only remaining wound was literally a tiny pinhole, the grafts were approved. It was applied instantly. Last week, when I went back, they did it to me again, with the doctor signaling high hopes that that was the last week of treatment. Then came this past Thursday. He looked at the last wound, nodded, and said “It’s done”. I nearly jumped for joy. BUT—they STILL put the two layer dressing on, this time with only a bit of gauze over the wound site, just for good luck. Hence the title of the diary. This past Monday, brillig’s TC diary was about milestones. I WANTED to write about my first trip to the pool in YEARS. But, I still have the dressing on as precaution until my visit this upcoming Thursday, when I presume I’ll get further instruction on how to do proper compression. THEN next Saturday I should (I hope so bad) be able to start training again. Hence my more “accurate” title. Send all good juju my way for not only continued healing, but for the Wisdom to ensure that I don’t have to go to the wound clinic ever again through my actions. And now, on to Tops! TOP COMMENTS Brillig's ObDisclaimer: The decision to publish each nomination lies with the evening's Diarist and/or Comment Formatter. My evenings at the helm, I try reeeeallllyy hard to publish everything without regard to content. I really do, even when I disagree personally with any given nomination. "TopCommentness" lies in the eyes of the nominator and of you, the reader - I leave the decision to you. I do not publish self-nominations (ie your own comments) and if I ruled the world, we'd all build community, supporting and uplifting instead of tearing our fellow Kossacks down. Please remember that comment inclusion in Top Comments does not constitute support or endorsement by diarist, formatter, Top Comments writers or DailyKos. Questions, complaints or comments? Contact brillig. As of this writing there are no submissions, but I do want to acknowledge kalmoth for highlighting Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s turns of phrase “when Rome went Titus up”. Why? Because in AJP’s diaries, Hunter’s diaries, Markos’ diaries you will find the best comments if you take time to scroll. Remember, if you see something, say something. This is how the Kos Community grows. This is how we find new exciting writers to follow. Anyway, rant over. TOP MOJO Top Mojo for yesterday, November 3, first comments and tip jars excluded. Thank you mik for the mojo magic! For those of you interested in How Top Mojo Works, please see his diary on FAQing Top Mojo. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/11/4/2203243/-Saturday-Top-Comments-I-went-swimming-this-morning?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/