With a perineal wound that wasn’t healing after 8 months, it was time to bring out the big guns and try a VAC dressing. This is something that had been mentioned many times during my many dressing changes and whilst I had an idea of how they operated, I didn’t know what it would be like to have one. The aim of this blog post is to explain more about them and how I’ve coped with having one.
Read moreChanging the VAC Dressing
The VAC has been chugging away for 72 hours and has been collecting a fair amount of exudate. It’s now time for it’s first change and it’s going to be done in the comfort of my own home by a district nurse.
Read more48 Hours With a VAC
1:30am and the Butt Machine is shouting at me. The alarm is intermittent and whilst not terribly loud it’s tone is annoying. I’m still half asleep as the alarm continues to shout but the sound doesn’t register but when it did I feared that there was a leak in the vacuum. Thankfully the charging cable hadn’t been fitted correctly so the battery was running low and there was no leak. But, at the same time I realised that my colostomy bag was full.
Read moreHaving a VAC Installed
With a perineum wound that was refusing to heal, was frequently infected and had joined up to a pilonidal surgery, a different solution was required in the form of a vacuum-assisted closure aka a VAC aka negative-pressure wound therapy.
Read moreKen Butt v2
Over 8 months after having an abdominoperineal resection as part of the proctosigmoidectomy, I’m back having the entire thing reopened in a bid to try and resolve the wound healing issues.
Read moreThe Ongoing Saga of the Unhealed Perineal Wound
After 8 months my issues with the Ken Butt have continued and it doesn’t look like they will be resolving themselves without intervention.
Read moreStoma 66
66 days for Ostomates to walk, run, and dance their way to 66,000km. That is the new challenge launched by Colostomy UK to help promote fitness for those that have undergone stoma surgery.
Read moreKen Butt Update
For over 7 months the Ken Butt has been a right pain in the butt. It’s stubbornly not healing and may appear to be getting slightly worse with the wounds tunnelling inside.
Read moreDo I Regret Having Surgery?
This is a question I’ve asked myself many times and I find it difficult to answer. The ultimate answer always tends to be no but I’m forever questioning whether that’s the right answer.
Read moreThe Psychological Effects of Having a Proctosigmoidectomy
If I rewind back to early 2018, I was embarking on a time of running to the toilets, feeling lethargic, feeling like I was forever having a fever, this was Crohn’s Disease reminding me that it was still there and trying to treat the flare up with the usual treatments of steroids and Humira injections would prove to be futile.
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