Day 6 Post-Op

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JeffF said:
Yikes Sarah! Thankfully mine so far has been doing well to oral antibiotics and I'm waiting on a topical one too. At it's worst it was about 2 inches long, 3/4 wide and less than 1/2 inch deep. I did see some stitches which was a bit unsettling. But it is looking a lot better now. How long did it take for yours to completely heal? I am looking forward to that day.

Thanks for the well wishes!
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Mine took about 3/4 months to heal over,(on anti-biotics for nearly all of it, with honey dressings, being cleaned and packed nearly every other day) so now my scar is wider at the top compared to the bottem!
Glad its starting to heal! Hope the topical antibiotics are doing the trick and you heal soon!!
Love Sarah xxxx
 
No "S" yet... lol Here is a pic from tonight (9 weeks out).

As you can see where the top got infected. Overall I feel great. The wound itself has never hurt (go figure).

9Weeks.jpg
 
Selma, most of us did have a few other tubes elsewhere, including one in the neck, which leaves a small wound for a little while. I haven't stared at my neck since my discharge to see if it left a mark. And ditto a few tubes in the arm and wrist.

Believe it or not, one of my fondest, cheeriest memories of my hospital stay, was that once or twice every day, SOME weird connection between me and the hospital would be removed, and I'd take one more step back to being a free-standing normal human! Naturally, in order to experience all that joy, you have to start with a LOT of connections. . .
 
normofthenorth said:
Selma, most of us did have a few other tubes elsewhere, including one in the neck, which leaves a small wound for a little while. I haven't stared at my neck since my discharge to see if it left a mark. And ditto a few tubes in the arm and wrist.

Believe it or not, one of my fondest, cheeriest memories of my hospital stay, was that once or twice every day, SOME weird connection between me and the hospital would be removed, and I'd take one more step back to being a free-standing normal human! Naturally, in order to experience all that joy, you have to start with a LOT of connections. . .
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Norm, I couldn't agree more. Every time I lost a tube or one of the many IVs or one of the 2 neck catheters, I was happy. The best of all was losing the drainage tubes, god those were the worst.
 
JeffF said:
Norm, I couldn't agree more. Every time I lost a tube or one of the many IVs or one of the 2 neck catheters, I was happy. The best of all was losing the drainage tubes, god those were the worst.
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It was great to have those tubes removed. Especially when you get to celebrate with that wonderful shower after several days in bed and a few sponge baths.
 
I can't wait for my tubes to come out....of course I have to actually get to surgery first :)...10 days, and counting!
 
I better...my husband has the idea that I'm going to help with the cooking while I'm off work! It's usually his job.
 
Well I spoke too soon. The wound re-opened and the infection is rearing it's head again. As you can see last Wednesday it was looking good. I was so close, too, now it's a few more weeks of treatment...

Updated_WoundPic.jpg
 
JeffF said:
Well I spoke too soon. The wound re-opened and the infection is rearing it's head again. As you can see last Wednesday it was looking good. I was so close, too, now it's a few more weeks of treatment...

Updated_WoundPic.jpg
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Sorry to hear that. Are they considerring taking you to the OR to clean it out, or remove any wires in that area?
 
Hi Lyn, That has not been brought up. I have been going to a Wound Care Center that is not affiliated with Johns Hopkins, but they have been getting the reports. Do you think the infection could be that deep without having a fever and pain? I'm starting a Dakins Soak treatment tonight for the next week, so hopefully that will help.
 
JeffF said:
Hi Lyn, That has not been brought up. I have been going to a Wound Care Center that is not affiliated with Johns Hopkins, but they have been getting the reports. Do you think the infection could be that deep without having a fever and pain? I'm starting a Dakins Soak treatment tonight for the next week, so hopefully that will help.
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Ouch! Jeff that looks like it might hurt a bit. Also ask the Wound Care Center is you can use a product called Prisma. My husband had a keep wound on his foot and his podiatrist used Prisma exclusively and the wound healed up fairly well. Just a thought in case the Dakins Soak doesn't quite do it.
 
I'm sorry, I completely missed this post. Do get better. This is pretty scary that infection can come back this far away from surgery after you kicked its butt the heck out of there. What do you think the plan is, just the soak treatment or go get more specially created creams?
 
JeffF said:
Hi Lyn, That has not been brought up. I have been going to a Wound Care Center that is not affiliated with Johns Hopkins, but they have been getting the reports. Do you think the infection could be that deep without having a fever and pain? I'm starting a Dakins Soak treatment tonight for the next week, so hopefully that will help.
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I dont know if it is possible to have a deeper infection with out fever and pain, Justin's showed up 10 days postop the first night he got a fever off and on was admited, for testing and when he went to the OR his infection was pretty spread. in and under bone he didnt have any pain. They cleaned out all the infected tissue and took most of his wires out. When it came back a year or so later, hedidnt have fever or pain, that time antibiotics cleared it up so he didnt need surgery...he made it to the preop holding area with IVs when they decided to not operate since it looked better. I just rememberred his infection at 5 weeks, he didnt seem to be in any pain and didnt have a fever, but I thought things looked "different" the home nurse told me he was fine and I was a nervous first time Mom with a heart baby on top of it, I ended up taking him to th esurgeon to get checked and when they laned it the whole incision had stuff come out.. So I THINK small parts of infections can hang around and not really have symptons and since you were on antibiotics, that might have kept it under control but when you stopped it could grow.

BUt I know a few people whose wounds went on and off for quite a while, it tured out she needed her wires removed and old pacing wires.
Its just me but since you had MRSA, did they do more cultures when it reopened?
 
Lynlw said:
I dont know if it is possible to have a deeper infection with out fever and pain, Justin's showed up 10 days postop the first night he got a fever off and on was admited, for testing and when he went to the OR his infection was pretty spread. in and under bone he didnt have any pain. They cleaned out all the infected tissue and took most of his wires out. When it came back a year or so later, hedidnt have fever or pain, that time antibiotics cleared it up so he didnt need surgery...he made it to the preop holding area with IVs when they decided to not operate since it looked better. I just rememberred his infection at 5 weeks, he didnt seem to be in any pain and didnt have a fever, but I thought things looked "different" the home nurse told me he was fine and I was a nervous first time Mom with a heart baby on top of it, I ended up taking him to th esurgeon to get checked and when they laned it the whole incision had stuff come out.. So I THINK small parts of infections can hang around and not really have symptons and since you were on antibiotics, that might have kept it under control but when you stopped it could grow.

BUt I know a few people whose wounds went on and off for quite a while, it tured out she needed her wires removed and old pacing wires.
Its just me but since you had MRSA, did they do more cultures when it reopened?
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Hi Lyn, thanks for the response. They did not re-culture since I had the topical AB on it when I came back in. I think they might after this week of Dakins. The infection is MSSA staph so the custom topical the lab made will hopefully continue to work. I'm hoping to see some results from the Dakins (I did a Dakins treatment 6 or 7 weeks ago that showed results). Fingers crossed. Iam ready for this thing to go away already.

Thanks again for sharing your expirences.

Jeff
 
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