Another bloody mess

The collar that holds my tracheotomy began the day gray, but during the course of the day it caught a whiff of some holiday spirit and turned as red as Rudolph's nose.

I first realized what was happening as I was caught up in episodes from the fourth season of Seinfeld. I thought I would just watch one or two while I fed myself lunch but I couldn't stop watching, and before I knew most of the afternoon had gone by and I had spent all of it in Seinfeld's universe.

Around the time that Kramer and Jerry accidentally dropped a Junior Mint into the surgical cavity of Elaine's boyfriend during an operation, I felt dampness on and below my face. I ran my hand along my neck and when I looked at my fingers they were red and wet.

When I got to the bathroom mirror I realized that my trach collar and half of my face was drenched in blood flowing from the wounds resulting from my biopsies on Nov. 3.

After weeks of persistent bleeding and a few visits to my doctor for help, it finally looked like these wounds were beginning to heal. Then my head suddenly began to swell in new directions last week, stretching out the skin in my face and interfering with any healing that was under way.

Today's episode of bleeding was the scariest yet.

I changed all of the bandages —about 10 bandages of varying sizes are needed to cover the affected area— and mopped up the blood that had trickled down my neck to my chest and stomach.

And then I hopped on to the computer and e-mailed my doctor to beg for help. It's crazy to still be dealing with wounds that are stubborn to heal six weeks after the surgery took place.

Maybe I should follow Kramer's lead and plug up the holes with a few Junior Mints.