Tell me about wound vacs....

So this darn butt wound is being stubborn and tunnelling. So surgeon is going to go in and clean it all out and then use a wound vac.

So, tell me about your experiences....I want the good, the bad and the ugly.

No surgery date yet.

Thanks.

Kelly

the worst part in my opinion was the day they changed the dressing. this was probably exacerbated by the fact that i had an open incision they wanted to have heal by secondary intention. the doc let them use lidocaine gel to numb the surgical incision before placing new dressing in the wound. and i'd pre-med with a couple percocet before the nurse arrived. the adhesive dressing was a pain to remove, too, but that improved once they started using adhesive remover.

the days in between dressing change were fine. it's a bit inconvenient and a bit noisy but overall not unbearable.

If you need the thing it's probably for the best! Be excited! At least you know this time your wound should heal up really nice and you won't have to deal with it anymore. That wound is definitely the worst! I'm a little over 4 weeks post op and mine is still pretty irritated, but so are the rest of my incisions including the stoma site! Takes longer for some of us I suppose.
Best of luck with the vac I hope it works perfectly for you

I had one for two weeks when my wound abscessed several months post-op. For me, it didn't close it all the way, but it did make it manageable and I only had to wet/dry pack for a short time after.

Pain meds before are a must. The biggest pain is that you cannot sit directly on your butt with it but it's better than the alternative. Protein is important for any healing...glad you started that!

Good luck and keep us posted! Oh, and yes, I would use it again, to heal any incision they gave me the option to!

My nurse always applied lidocaine prior to a change. That was really helpful. Also, I took my showers right before she came and that also helped with the dressing changes. It only hurt at first not after the first few changes. Hope it goes well!

The worst thing for me about the wound vac was that it was a really hot August, and it just took so much tape to hold it in place ... was so hot. It was kind of like I had a tail, though..... and people always gave up their seats for me on the subway, something about having a tube coming out of you with weird bubbles in it.

Unfortunately, it didn't help me at all, but that was because I had a pocket inside that needed to be fixed surgically..... seems like you already had surgery, though, right? I have read of it helping others a lot.

It was pretty annoying, but really, not a big deal compared to everything else in the larger scheme of what I've dealt with....

Yes, it did wake me up randomly with the beeping... sort of like an IV in the hospital.

Skin prep under a lot of it helped w/the tape removal too.

Did you start it yet? Hope it goes or is going well.

I wonder how many others with a "Barbie Butt" were not sewn up tight at surgery.

I have mentioned here before that the incision to remove my anus was left open for the last 1/2 inch [or so] along the entire incision line to allow it to heal from the inside out. I don't think I have ever had anyone else on any of the support groups that I frequent say the same thing. Seems like everyone has been stitched up tight right from the get-go.

Being overweight, plus being type 2 diabetic, I was very concerned about the healing of my butt wound, infection, etc. I had no trouble, other than it took a while to completely close, but I don't think any longer than anyone else.

I read about many of you having to be re-opened and I wonder what would have happened if you hadn't been sewn up all the way.

Just wondering ~ ~ ~

Hi Kelly,

Thanks for asking. In many ways I'm doing great, better than in years and years. I think the emergency surgery in April just made it clear to me that I wasn't going to mess around -- anything I could do to improve my health I would.... so I've been swimming 5 x per week, walking 10K steps per day, meditating 40 min per day, and I started eating better, and lost weight, which has made my problematic new stoma a bit easier to manage (fingers crossed that a brand change on wafer helps too). Unfortunately, though, my job is just really stressful right now and it's been a shock going back after the summer (I teach, so although I was working hard, I had a very different rhythm in the summer). I kind of just crashed yesterday and today.... didn't go in, stayed home and rested and cleaned my kitchen.... just need to get some more calm.

Of course it's scary re whether the wound vac works or not. I have heard many success stories. In my case, they really didn't know why my wound wasn't healing -- healed beautifully until it got to about 2 cm and then just stopped. Turned out there was a fluid pocket blocking it, so no way the wound vac would help w/that. It sounds like in your case they have a better sense of what's up with it.

I know my gi was saying hyperbaric oxygen as another alternative down the road.... it's expensive, so not a first line treatment, but that's often something that works when nothing else does.

In any case, remember that mine was open for about 3 years, and then it closed. It's not 100% in terms of strength, but it's not a big deal to manage.... just means I can't sit all day, which you're not supposed to do anyways.

Hang in.

Kelly so sorry this is such a tough time. And really it is. I think the pressure to be "positive" can just add another layer of stress and another thing to feel bad about. Can you give yourself permission to take a break from trying to pull yourself out of it and just feel the grief and fear and frustration? Because that's all part of life and it's your experience now. Doesn't mean you'll get stuck or be down forever -- you won't. I've always found that fighting the feelings just makes it all take longer (and yes, i still do it -- as they say "take my advice, I'm not using it". 😀)

My partner used to tell me jokingly every day when she packed my wound, "have I mentioned that I never wanted to be a nurse?" But she did it relatively cheerfully nonetheless. Amazing. Says something about what love really is.

Hang in. Glad I can help a bit. You've helped me too when I was in the hospital with an NG tube and a belly full of fluid miserable -- thinking that if every day was going to feel this bad I'd rather die. But I got better. You will too.

Rest is good.