Poor Prado...

If medical talk makes you queasy, skip this post. Seriously.

The article in today's AJC didn't bring back pleasant memories for me.

But the staph infection has been a different kind of pain.

“I don’t know if it hurts more before [the surgery] or after,” he said. “Oh, man. It was brutal.”

Prado is eligible to return from the 15-day disabled list Thursday, but is not close to being ready. Incisions are left open to heal after surgery for staph infection removal, and Prado won’t be cleared to begin physical activity using his legs until the wound is closed, which typically takes two to three weeks, according to medical journals.

I don't know how much tissue they had to remove, or how large his incisions are on his knee and calf, but I had similar surgeries on my face (I got the chicken pox as a teen and one pock went crazy) and they took out quite a bit of tissue. I was in the hospital for six days, then the hole in my face took about a month to fully heal and my scar was about the size of the pad of my thumb (until my mom thought it was "too big" and took me to a plastic surgeon to have it reduced - now it's just a line).

Again, I can't speak for Martin's procedure, but with my post-surgery care, the wound was also left open and my jaw and cheek were packed with medicated gauze. It was thin and tape-like, and it had to be replaced every day. Of course, when you pull out the gauze, your body thinks it's healing and has attached to the gauze, so it's super-painful. As the wound gets smaller, it hurts much, much less, but for those first couple of weeks, it was brutal. And there's nothing you can do! This is the only way for it to heal.

The main concern I have for him is his nerve regeneration. It has taken years for both sides of my face to smile at the same time, and sometimes when I'm especially tired, they still don't. I don't know how much they had to scoop out of his leg, but hopefully they were very careful and he doesn't have any problems getting back to top shape. We know we don't have to worry about him working hard! :)

Get well soon, Marteeeeeen! Love ya, hon! Can't wait to see you dancing during BP again...