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update w/some good news

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Posted 12/7/2011 5:22 PM (GMT 0)
Just got back from the plastic surgeon. He said my wound looks "awesome" and "this is what healing tissue looks like." He thinks another month until it's closed, and he expects that pretty soon it's going to pick up the pace and start closing faster.... very nice to hear.

Not that I trust doctors' time frames, but he's been reluctant to give me one, and now he did, and it feels finite.

He looked at the sore on my butt, acknowledging that he's not qualified to tell if it's related to Crohn's, but he said it's not a boil at this point, there's no head, and it looks just like the sort of sore someone can get from being in bed a lot (not a bed sore, that's a different thing, just an irritated area and more like a pimple). He gave me some clindamyacin gel, if it's just that it should help.

My gi said he'd see me today if it's an emergency, but it's not feeling like one, so I'm going to wait and see, will be on it if it gets worse. I had a whole lot of things going wrong when i had my "plauge of boils" a year ago, and that's just not happening now, so hoping it isn't that. The irritation from being in bed so much explanation seems more plausible, especially since it's an area that I'm on a lot (and as my partner pointed out, the skin their may be weaker from the boils I've had right there in the past).
Posted 12/8/2011 4:22 AM (GMT 0)
That is great news! I haven't been around long enough to know your full story, but having encouragement from a doc like that must be such a relief. Hopefully once you are up and around more the other area will clear on its own. So nice to hear a happy story!!!
Posted 12/8/2011 4:43 PM (GMT 0)
So glad you are making such good progress with your wound healing. I know it's been a long and slow process. Hopefully his timeframe is right on the money!
Posted 12/8/2011 10:48 PM (GMT 0)
Well it's about time!!! So happy to read a positive upbeat post on your overall healing. So strange how some heal with no issues and others it takes its sweet time. This will help make the holidays a lot more merrier for sure. YAY!
Posted 12/8/2011 11:28 PM (GMT 0)
Great news!!
Posted 12/9/2011 1:18 AM (GMT 0)
So happy to hear this! Hope the sore goes away soon too.
Posted 12/9/2011 1:41 AM (GMT 0)
Blue,

That is great news. What a relief for you. Rosemary
Posted 12/9/2011 2:20 AM (GMT 0)
     Great news!  What kind of wound was it?  By the way, how long before a boil goes away?  I cancelled my appointment with my surgeon yesterday because the swelling has gone down quite a bit, but still there.  I didn't want him to think I am a hypochondriac.  It is still hard.  I don't believe it ever came to a head.  When I went to my family doctor, she lanced it, but I really never saw a head on it.  Maybe she lanced it too soon?  I am off the antibiotic but still take the sitz baths twice a day and use the antibiotic ointment on it.  It doesn't bother me, but any kind of lump concerns me..lol.  It has been two weeks.
Posted 12/9/2011 2:27 AM (GMT 0)
Great news!!!! Sooo happy for you and that your finally healing, gosh it's been a long road for you.

When your lying in bed so long, your skin changes & weakens (breaks down) and you get sores, the more extreme is bed sores. Both of my deceased parents had these issues from being bed ridden. Rotating your body from left to right every few hours helps.

Best of wishes!!!
Posted 12/9/2011 2:35 AM (GMT 0)
Dearest blueglass!

What wonderful news! That must be so exciting and encouraging to you!

Revel and enjoy!! Merry Christmas!

Much love,
Mollie
Posted 12/9/2011 3:16 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks everyone, it's nice to have good news to share.

I've been totally wiped today, but another exciting thing, well, exciting in the realm of mostly bed rest -- got my hair cut, for the first time in 11 weeks. Boy that was driving me nuts..... I'm about 5' 9'' and the woman who cuts my hair is 4' 11", and I can't sit.... so she got a step stool and I stood, and I'm going to especially love it tomorrow when I forget about it and reach and I don't have heavy hair flopping everywhere.....

Christine, the wound is my butt wound from surgery. I had my proctocolectomy in Feb, but the wound became chronic and didn't heal past a certain point. In Sept they realized that my perineum was in the wrong place and peeking out. Had to cancel a trip to visit my family and have another surgery. The new wound has also been slow to close, and it's been scary that maybe it just wasn't going to.... so that's why the appointment yesterday was such good news.

As for the boils, well, they come in different sizes and take different time to heal. I think what probably happened w/you is that the antibiotic helped and shrunk it from the inside, so it never came to a head and popped (be thankful for that ... it's much less gross when they dry up on their own). I had some that did that, and some that didn't really get going due to the antibiotics..... but then I had a few others that got huge and so incredibly painful.... and they were too far gone for antibiotics to reach, so they popped. Can't remember how long exactly, but I'd say the really painful part was maybe a week or a little more..... then a lot of time bandaging w/drainage (not so easy w/the location..... I would wrap those ace bandage kind of things around my leg with gauze....)

In any case, glad yours is better, and you weren't being a hypochondriac.

My sore is a little worse, actually, and it really does seem like a boil. It isn't that bad, but my fear is that more that I'll get an outbreak like before that just about this one. But I'm mostly not going there; I see that that's more past trauma than present reality. It's hard to know if I should get on antibiotics now or wait and see.... kind of like the idea of not putting them in my system if not necessary. But it is Friday tomorrow, so don't want to get stuck for the weekend.

Windy City I am changing sides a lot, more like every ten minutes, but it's been over ten weeks..... I'm not fully on bed rest, and I walk almost every day and shower etc. But it's at least 20 hours or so each day in bed.

Oh, I emailed the surgeon to see if there was any chance I could go to this conference in four weeks, and he said as long as I sit on something soft, I should be able to. Hope he's right!

So tired..... I'll read some of the other posts tomorrow.... I think it's going to take a bit to build back some stamina after this run here.....

Appreciate your celebrating w/me....
Posted 12/9/2011 4:52 AM (GMT 0)
That is wonderful news, blueglass :-)

I am not so sure but what I am having issues with mine, too.  My surgery was July 14, but it seems to be staying right about the same with discharge, a little spotty blood and pain/discomfort.   My new GI took a look in early Nov and said give it until the first of the year before going back to the surgeon for a check on it.

I knew it would be a long time as he left the last 1/2 inch or so open to heal from the inside out and said it would be months.  I am also Diabetic, but I haven't had any healing issues.  My abdominal incisions healed right up.  I realize the butt end is different, and the wear and tear of sitting does aggrivate things.    I can't imagine what you have been through with not being able to sit, though.   Didn't you have bloodclots, too?   I am fearful that if I would have to ''not sit'' what would happen to me, because I am still on Coumadin for bloodclots from my surgery.

Very happy for you !!!

 

Posted 12/9/2011 7:24 AM (GMT 0)
Great news, blueglass, and isn't that Murphy's law, all our problems always get worse on the weekends it seems.
Posted 12/9/2011 12:04 PM (GMT 0)
allswell, yes LOL re weekends..... they do seem to have more than 2/7 worth of the problems.

ChronieCJ, my gi hasn't even looked at my butt wound; the surgeons are the ones who have been managing it.... well, before the 2nd surgery it was more my WOC nurse who has been managing it. What dressings have you tried? Silvadene? Silver alginate? Have you tried a wound vac (didn't work for me, but it has worked for a lot of others)?

I don't think gi's necessarily know much about wound healing (well, sometimes I feel like not much of anyone knows much about it..... it's not really a science, that's for sure, everyone has their own protocols). My CR surgeon says the nurses often know more.

Many of my docs have said that diabetes makes these wounds harder to heal, so that's probably why they told you months in the first place. Glad you didn't have any problem w/your incisions (mine was lapro, and no problem there either). Crohn's also makes them harder to heal.... my surgeon thinks because it changes the nature of the tissue -- you have to make new tissue to fill in and sometimes we just don't. She said that my second surgery was easier because I'd put on weight and they had more to work with -- she said skinny people heal more slowly.

This bed rest is due to the plastic surgeon -- after the first surgery I was out and about and sitting w/the pillow (do you use a waffle pillow? that can help). I went on vacation and everything.... but now, they want me to just stay off of it, and I have to say, it makes sense, and now it seems to be working, so that's good.

Yes, I had an abscess a week after my first surgery and had to go back in the hospital for a few days. On that CT they found a blood clot in my hepatic vein, and so I had the months of coumadin. Everyone said that had nothing to do w/the slowness of the wound healing, and nothing changed when I went off of it.... The abscess was in the butt wound, though, and that was likely another factor in its slow healing (she had to rip open many of the stitches after only a week).

Hope yours heals ... but also know that what I am going through now is nothing compared to having the active disease.....no regrets on the surgery at all.
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