Gross Wound - Need Advice!
Hey Terri!
Sorry to hear you are going through this..
After my last surgery, my incision opened up due to an infection, and it was about 5 inches deep and 3.5 inches long. It was huge. I felt like my guts were open to the world. Which, well, they were. I had to (And by I, I mean my home nurse) pack it twice a day with skinny sterile iodoform gauze strips. They had some lidocaine to numb inside the area before packing cuz my go**** hurt!! Don't be afraid to ask for the lidocaine!! I'm not sure if yours is large enough, but after a month of packing, they put me on a wound vac. Boy, was that quite the experience for a 22 yr old going to college.. fun times... it helped the wound heal soooo much faster though!
Sorry to hear you are going through this..
After my last surgery, my incision opened up due to an infection, and it was about 5 inches deep and 3.5 inches long. It was huge. I felt like my guts were open to the world. Which, well, they were. I had to (And by I, I mean my home nurse) pack it twice a day with skinny sterile iodoform gauze strips. They had some lidocaine to numb inside the area before packing cuz my go**** hurt!! Don't be afraid to ask for the lidocaine!! I'm not sure if yours is large enough, but after a month of packing, they put me on a wound vac. Boy, was that quite the experience for a 22 yr old going to college.. fun times... it helped the wound heal soooo much faster though!
Hi Terri,
Althought I have not had the DS yet, I have been sent home with an open wound that I had to pack at home. It was from my port site from my lap band. It had such a severe infection, my surgeon and the Infectious disease Dr, left it open to drain and heal. It was packed twice a day at the hospital with sterilized gauze strips that came out of a bottle in long yards. While in the hospital, the first time they unpacked it, they gave me my morphine, because it was quite deep. It was about an inch and a half wide, and about 2 inches deep. It hurt. They cleaned it out with a syringe several times filled with saline. Then put Silversorb in the open wound, and slowly started packing the gauze strips into it with a stainless steel intrument that looked almost like a huge tweezer with rounded tips. The silversorb actually contained silver in it. You didn't mention that your doctor has you doing that, other than flushing it out with saline. The infectious disease doctor said the silversorb helps heal open wounds. Anyway, this was done everyday, twice a day in the hospital, i was there for 5 days. When the guaze was taken out, it was almost a mushy yellow color in spots and pink in others. On the 4th day, the nurse showed me how to do this, and watched me. Let me tell you, a lot of gauze goes in there, and you really have to do it slowly and pu**** in there. I was afraid i was going to rip it open. But I didn't. then it was covered with a silicon sterile patch. Felt almost like skin, except thicker. I really was amazed on how long the strip of gauze was that was coming out of me. When the hole starts healing up, you notice less and less guaze going in, and the cleaner the gauze starts becoming when you're healing. it heals from the inside out. So it should start getting shallow as it's healing. I was changing this every 12 hours, and I had a routine. Sterile everything, even the scissors that cut the gauze strips.
I was also on somekind a real powerful antibiotics and boy were they expensive. Thank goodness my health insurance paid for it. When I went home, I had to take them twice a day for 14 days. It was $2500.00, but my insurance was great, I only had to pay $30.00.
It took me about 3 weeks to completely heal up. When I returned back to work, i was no longer packing guaze into it, however I was keeping a guaze pad on it.
If I were you, I would speak to your doctor, or go to him if you have concerns.
Hope you heal quickly. Sending you best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Donna
Althought I have not had the DS yet, I have been sent home with an open wound that I had to pack at home. It was from my port site from my lap band. It had such a severe infection, my surgeon and the Infectious disease Dr, left it open to drain and heal. It was packed twice a day at the hospital with sterilized gauze strips that came out of a bottle in long yards. While in the hospital, the first time they unpacked it, they gave me my morphine, because it was quite deep. It was about an inch and a half wide, and about 2 inches deep. It hurt. They cleaned it out with a syringe several times filled with saline. Then put Silversorb in the open wound, and slowly started packing the gauze strips into it with a stainless steel intrument that looked almost like a huge tweezer with rounded tips. The silversorb actually contained silver in it. You didn't mention that your doctor has you doing that, other than flushing it out with saline. The infectious disease doctor said the silversorb helps heal open wounds. Anyway, this was done everyday, twice a day in the hospital, i was there for 5 days. When the guaze was taken out, it was almost a mushy yellow color in spots and pink in others. On the 4th day, the nurse showed me how to do this, and watched me. Let me tell you, a lot of gauze goes in there, and you really have to do it slowly and pu**** in there. I was afraid i was going to rip it open. But I didn't. then it was covered with a silicon sterile patch. Felt almost like skin, except thicker. I really was amazed on how long the strip of gauze was that was coming out of me. When the hole starts healing up, you notice less and less guaze going in, and the cleaner the gauze starts becoming when you're healing. it heals from the inside out. So it should start getting shallow as it's healing. I was changing this every 12 hours, and I had a routine. Sterile everything, even the scissors that cut the gauze strips.
I was also on somekind a real powerful antibiotics and boy were they expensive. Thank goodness my health insurance paid for it. When I went home, I had to take them twice a day for 14 days. It was $2500.00, but my insurance was great, I only had to pay $30.00.
It took me about 3 weeks to completely heal up. When I returned back to work, i was no longer packing guaze into it, however I was keeping a guaze pad on it.
If I were you, I would speak to your doctor, or go to him if you have concerns.
Hope you heal quickly. Sending you best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Donna
Erroded lapband removed 12/28/09, stomach repaired, infected port cut out.
WLS done on Dec 14th, 2010.WOOHOO!! I survived & I'm alive! Dr. Gagner is my life saver!
(deactivated member)
on 7/22/10 11:49 am
on 7/22/10 11:49 am
To echo the above poster, when I was in the hospital post-op after surgery #2 (2 within 3 days), my tummy incision leaked like a seive....yellow gross stuff. They finally had a wound care specialist come see me and they started applying a silver cloth to the area--one size promoted drainage, the other promoted drying it up. They started using the drainage size--with a maxi pad on top and then when I left had me switch sides to the dry it up side--and the drainage stopped within 24 hours. Maybe ask about that v. packing it?
Terri--You've already gotten the best advise to call your surgeon.
The reason you need to pack it fully is so that a pocket doesn't form inside which would cause you all kinds of problems. I've packed a number of wounds and it's not pleasant for the patient or the nurse which is probably why the last one did so poorly--she was probably squeamish about what she was doing. A wound center would be a good idea since they deal with those kinds of things all the time. It will probably take a month to six weeks to heal depending upon if there is any infection.
Hang in there and good luck!
Lisa
The reason you need to pack it fully is so that a pocket doesn't form inside which would cause you all kinds of problems. I've packed a number of wounds and it's not pleasant for the patient or the nurse which is probably why the last one did so poorly--she was probably squeamish about what she was doing. A wound center would be a good idea since they deal with those kinds of things all the time. It will probably take a month to six weeks to heal depending upon if there is any infection.
Hang in there and good luck!
Lisa
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