Robert Gale

It’s been 10 months since I had a new bum installed and it’s been a bumpy ride. I was n’t expecting further surgery and I certainly didn’t expect to still be having daily dressing changes to a Ken Butt wound. Here’s an update on the wound, my latest specialist appointment, my hernia and my mental health.

Recently, the Ken Butt wound was working a bit of overtime in parts causing some overgranulation. A ridge had formed on one side of the wound which needed to be addressed. There were a few different options available for how to treat it but it was decided to start with the one that would cause the least complications.

The wound has been slowly healing since surgery five weeks ago but within the past week has been overgranulating quite quickly. This can cause issues, particularly with delaying the healing of the wound.

It’s been just over a week since I’ve had the VAC dressing and since then I’ve been continuing to have daily dressing changes by the practice nurse, and changes on the weekend by the district nurse.

17 days after the VAC dressing was fitted, and 20 days after surgery, it’s time for it to come off. 

As it’s World Mental Health Day, I thought I would share how IBD has affected me for some time. First it was the symptoms of Crohn’s that were affecting me and then the complications from having an ostomy. 

Today was the second full week that I had worn the VAC dressing and it was time for the fourth change. So how is it healing?

I have been wearing a VAC dress machine for almost 2 weeks and I’ve learned how to sit right, how to carry it around, how to deal with problems and if it wasn’t in such an awkward position I think I’d be able to change it without issues. Here are 10 things that I’ve learned. 

Note: All of these points are related specifically to using a VAC dressing to heal a pereneal wound.

My second VAC dressing change took place on Sunday and whereas I had been having a lot of exudate draining out of it, it suddenly slowed down. Was everything ok?