Post-Reversal Wound Care

[pleistocene]

So, MrP is doing pretty good. I'm changing the packing and dressing on his wound 2x a day. The docs didn't ask for anything other than that. However, I've been reading about open wound care and there seems to be a lot more you can do to help it along. The most common thing is to clean the wound out with saline. This seems pretty standard for all wound types. The other things I've found have been high tech dressings, ointments, etc. However, I haven't found a resource online that shows these used specifically with an open ileo reversal wound.

Did any of you guys do anything different for your ileo wound than pack it with saline soaked gauze and cover it with more gauze?

[BrownBagger]

Just the gauze soaked in saline is all I ever used. It took about 5 weeks to completely heal over and I didn't need the dressing any more. It's pretty satisfying to watch the amount of gauze you can pack in there diminish over time. It's normal--and good--by the way, if it bleeds a bit when you pull out the gauze to change the dressing. My surgeon said that's a sure sign that new blood vessels are forming in the wound. And it's also normal, towards the end, for the gauze to dry out before you change it. The scar eventually shrinks quite a bit as well. Mine went from round to oblong to its current incarnation, which is about an inch by one quarter inch.

[pleistocene]

Thanks, Eric. You've provided me some measure of assurance. I've started second guessing my decision not to get home care just because I want to make sure I am doing all I can (and doing it the right way). MrP keeps asking if the amount of gauze is less. And, it hasn't changed yet....1 week postop. I'm trying to get approval for him to get back in the hyperbaric chamber as soon as possible. That should speed things along.

[BrownBagger]

Yeah, not much going on with mine for the first couple of weeks. But once it starts filling in, it moves right along.

Make sure you can get more saline if you need it. The stuff they gave me at the hospital to take home needed a prescription to refill, for some odd reason. I happened to be traveling when mine ran low, and couldn't find any. I was starting to get a little worried. I went to a pharmacy, which is when I found out about the prescription thing. The pharmacist said, "I've got some contact lens fluid that's basically identical." I'm like, "Dude, hook me up!" Worked as advertised.