Question for fellow "Barbie butts"....

I'd steer clear of creams- I think that area needs decent air flow to heal. You may even want to cut the baths down to 1 a day- to keep it as dry as possible. It took me a long time too, a good 4-5 months to fully heal. Just like you, I had minor drainage, some itching, etc. As long as there is no infection, you just have to wait it out. It's annoying, seriously! I went to the Wound Clinic 2-3x, to have the WOCN nurse take a good look at it, reassure me that it was in fact healing! Because you really can't tell yourself. See what your doctor has to say, & if you need extra reassurance, ask about going to the hospitals wound clinic periodically, if need be. It WILL heal, eventually!

Are you working with a wocn? Silver alginate dressing can help absorb drainage. My wound got stuck and my nurse had me try endoform dressing which was incredibly effective (closed halfway in one night)

Yes, I forgot, I used a little bit of dressing too- alginate rope, it's called. When I was right about at the stage you are, the WOCN asked me if the edges of the wound were touching- appaarently, if the edges touch, it sends a signal to your brain to stop healing, your body seems to think everything is good. So she had me put these tiny pieces of this alginate rope in the open part, to keep the edges apart. It healed fully in like 5 days, seriously! I forgot about that stuff 'til Blue mentioned similar dressings. It looks like pink fiberglass, the insulation- sort of gauzy, soft, etc.

Ps -- you definitely want a good wocn to monitor. This is one area where the nurses tend to know a lot more than the docs

yayy!! Good good good!

Always important to have educated people helping you :)

First appointment tomorrow at 3:15. Nurse is confident we can get it healed up sooner rather than later.

Yahoo!

A little update.....

Day 4 today of the wound care clinic. It's about 20 mins from my house so not too bad a drive......since I am going everyday right now, it's a blessing we don't have much snow.

So they have been packing it with Silvercel and then I use a algicate dressing with gauze over it. The nurse today (saw her two days ago) said that it didn't seem as deep today.....who knows. To me it's just uncomfortable. There still seems to be quite a lot of drainage. Is that because of the silver drawing out the moisture?

Anyhow, still on the everyday visit until the 27th and then they will reassess. I just pray it closes quickly now.

Thank you for all your suggestions and advice, maybe in the new year I will be able to brag that mine is closed like Ember!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Convatec makes a Hydrofibre Dressing they call "Aquacell" Many years ago when my butt was taking so long to heal the Ostomy nurse put part of a 4x4 dressing between the cheek and each time she came moved it out 1/8th of an inc until it had healed. It was pretty quick compared to nothing.
You might call Convatec and ask their opinion, and for a sample?
WaterMaster

I think aquacell is what you're using, more or less -- it's an alginate dressing.

One thing I found was that past a certain point the alginate dressing was holding the wound open... so that is something to watch out for.... I mentioned earlier the endoform, which was like a miracle for me (and something to consider if the wound gets stuck.... it's cheap and easy to use). My wound closed halfway in one night from endoform, I kid you not (after not moving for months).... but we were also using alginate, and it stalled for a while.... had to stop w/the alginate to get it to finish closing.

A nurse explained the basic principle of wound care to me as, "If it's wet, make it dry; if it's dry, make it wet." If your wound is draining a lot, good to have the dressing to soak it up....

Hope you keep making progress....

The wound clinic did a swab today to make sure there was no infection.

Blue, I am going to ask about that product tomorrow when I go. Will keep you posted.

Cuba in 74 days so this needs to heal.....

Well, week three of the wound care clinic and today we started using a product called promogran prisma in conjunction with the Silvercel. Down to 1cm now so hopefully this will get me over the hump and get it closed up.

The swab came back with no infection so I think the wound is just "stuck".

Here is the info on the product we are using now. Have any of you used this before!

http://www.woundsinternational.com/pdf/content_8836.pdf

I went to see the surgeon yesterday and she said when she saw my name on the clinic list she was so worried. So I told her my story and she read the note from the nurse. I asked her, can I still take my holiday in March? She said well, let's take a look and see what's going on. So down the pants go and the surgeon and her resident are looking at it and then I hear, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, it looks so good!" She said she was expecting way worse. She said I had a lot of disease in the rectal area and it's going to just take time for the healthy tissue to develop. She was very pleased and told me to take my vacation!

So more time and patience!