The Adventures of Prisma and Hydrofera Blue

That sounds like a way-cool superhero concept, doesn’t it? I can see it now. The evil villains have Silver Star City in its grip. And just when all hope seems lost …

Out of the sky … like bolts of lightning … there they are. Silver Star City’s two guardians of justice, the superheroes Prisma and Hydrofera Blue.

No, that’s too corny. Let’s try again.

It’s the final night of the multi-band rock festival. For five days straight, the greatest independent bands have played on the festival’s three soundstages, hoping to capture new fans and a future record contract. And then … taking the stage … is a brand new five-piece independent rock band from Albany whose years of touring in low-paying gigs and sparse concert venues have prepared them for this moment.

And there they are. Four musicians who toured under the name Hydrofera Blue … and their lead singer, a stunning brunette with an outfit of lace and leather, a singer only known by her name Prisma. And as the opening chords to their first song reverberate through the festival’s speakers … the band known as Prisma and Hydrofera Blue know they just created magic.

Rip that page out of the typewriter, crumple it up, toss it in the waste basket. Nobody’s going to believe that one.

First off, unless you’re a medical professional of some sort, you have no idea what Prisma is, or what Hydrofera Blue is. Allow me.

Prisma is a collagen fabric that, when placed on an open wound, eventually turns into a healing gel. Hydrofera Blue is an antibacterial foam dressing which, when used with Prisma, helps facilitate healing.

Last week, as my doctor transitioned me off the post-surgery, poison-draining wound vac, he wrote a prescription for the two wound dressings Prisma and Hydrofera Blue. “Give these to your visiting nurse today,” he said to me. “You’ll need to put these on your foot three times a week, starting when the wound vac ends on Friday.”

Got it. I went home, contacted the post-surgery nurses association that was visiting me three times a week to change my wound vac connection, and texted them a photo of the prescription request.

No problem, they said, you’ll have the supplies by Friday.

That was on Wednesday.

On Thursday afternoon … I received a phone call from my visiting nurse with regard to scheduling Friday’s wound vac removal AND what to do from there.

“So you have the Prisma and the Hydrofera Blue, right?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I sent a prescription order over to the visiting nurse company. They said you would have a supply for Friday, and that once you showed me how to apply the dressings, I could do it myself afterward.”

“Oh, we don’t have those.”

Huh? “No, I spoke to the person at the front office. She asked me for the prescription, I texted a photo of it to her, and then she said they would have it in time.”

“Oh, no, we don’t have any of that. Those two products need to be specially ordered, and that takes days.”

Fuck. This is not good. If I don’t have those products, then I have to stay on the wound vac. And I’m paying a daily rental on the wound vac. AND … I can’t go back to work until the wound vac is completely removed. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck. And fuck.

I looked at my watch. 4:15 p.m. I gotta think fast. A quick call to my local pharmacy. Maybe if I gave them the prescription, they can find the products in one of their cabinets.

No dice. They didn’t have the dressings. It’s not something a pharmacy normally carries. I have to contact a medical supply store.

I have a better idea. This is 2024. As the old saying goes, “If you have to dig a ditch to get somewhere, get the shovel and dig the ditch.”

Let’s see whether either of these products are on Amazon.

Sure enough … there they are. And they can be purchased by a normal joe like me.

Okay. Bought both of them. Now let’s see if that Amazon Prime account I’ve kept for all these years actually pays off. I need 1-day delivery so that the products can arrive in time for the visiting nurse to apply them on my injured foot.

Yep. Amazon promises 1-day delivery.

I order the two dressings.

Amazon THEN tells me that one of the products will arrive Friday EVENING. The other one will arrive Saturday EVENING at the earliest.

Thanks a pantload, Jeff Bezos.

I then call my health insurance company, asking if they have any options. They provide me with several phone numbers of medical supply companies and durable medical equipment suppliers in the Capital District. But by the time I received their phone numbers … all of them are closed for the night.

My best option is to psycho-call every one of them first thing in the morning, see if they have the product, then find a way to get to those locations, purchase the products (even with the Amazon order coming in), and get them back to my home before the visiting nurse arrives.

Yeah … no. Every single place either told me they didn’t have the product, they couldn’t get the product, or they could order it on Monday and have it arrive in five to seven business days.

I want to throw up right now.

And just when I thought that all hope was lost … the nurse called. She and the nursing company had somehow scrounged enough Hydrofera Blue and a Prisma alternative for at least two weeks of wound changes. Whew.

She arrived Friday afternoon, we disconnected the wound vac for the final time (YAY!!), and then she showed me how to apply the Prisma (trim it to the size of the wound and cover the wound with it), then how to apply the Hydrofera Blue (trim it to the size of the wound, soak it in saline, and cover the Prisma with it). Then I add some gauze on top, then I wrap the bandage around my foot, and we’re done. Do this three times a week, and the healing will take care of itself.

And five minutes after she left my home … an Amazon driver arrived with my Hydrofera Blue purchase. And the Prisma arrived on Saturday afternoon. So I have enough Prisma and Hydrofera Blue to get through at least the next month, depending on how long it takes for this wound to heal.

But … damn. I do NOT need my blood pressure to hit TILT, and I don’t need my heartrate to zoom faster than a Devo drum track. Between the surgeries, the hospital stay, and everything else that’s happened … all I want is some damn normalcy.

Is that too much to freakin’ ask for?

Maybe it is. Maybe I don’t deserve normalcy. Maybe my life is more tangled than lo mein in a hurricane.

Your guess is as good as mine.

On Sunday night, I changed my own bandage. I trimmed the Prisma substitute to fit the wound, soaked the Hydrofera Blue compound in a saline solution, applied both to my wound, added some gauze, wrapped everything up, and crossed my fingers that I did everything correctly. I do NOT need months of surgery and rehab undone by a mistaken bandage application.

This morning, as part of my aftercare, my doctor replaced the bandage. He said I patched everything up just fine, and that there is definitely healing going on down there at my foot.

The next step after this will be skin grafts to cover the wound and get me back to full functionality. But that will take some time.

But for now, I’ll trust in the adventures of Prisma and Hydrofera Blue to get me through all this.

Feels like they should wear silly costumes and give each other a magical fist bump and say, “Prisma and Hydrofera Blue healing powers, activate!”

😀