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.
Irritated Skin
The skin around the wound has been a real issue and most probably the main source of irritation. The dressing that was being applied with the VAC dressing – essentially like wrapping cling film on your butt – was causing quite a bit of irritation that couldn’t easily be alleviated. I didn’t help matters by continually scratching the cling film dressing which didn’t very little to reduce the irritation but no doubt caused the skin to continue to be inflamed.
Post having the Vac removed the first dressings that were used were the likes of Cosmopore and Primapore (when you’ve been using dressings for 10 months you get to know all of the brands!) which probably compounded issues. After extended use of many months of Cosmopore pre-second operation, my butt skin was struggling a little so we reverted to just taping down a Zetuvit (another brand of dressing that just rolls off the tongue after many months of dressing changes).
So What Does The Wound Look Like
The wound is still sizeable and looks very fresh. This wound is very different to the ones I was dealing with prior to the second round of surgery so it’s strange seeing such a fresh wound. On the plus side, the wound is very clean with no signs of infection. The previous wounds were very small but had depth to them. This wound is much larger but is very shallow so just requires a ribbon of Aquacel (again with the brands!) to absorb the exudate.
Wound Progress
Date of Surgery – 20th September
1st October – 11 days
4th October – 14 days
7th October – 17 days
10th October – 20 days
15th October – 25 days
18th October – 28 days
20th October – 30 Days
How Is It Feeling?
Apart from the irritated skin which was the main source of discomfort, the wound isn’t feeling too bad. It’s tucked away between the butt cheeks and is always covered by a Zetuvit which provides a little extra cushioning.
How Long Will It Take To Heal?
This is a tough question to answer as the wound is quite a size and whilst not very deep, will take a while to fully heal. I’m expecting to still have the daily dressing changes into 2020 which wasn’t where I wanted to be. And as much as I want to get back into running, whilst it’s still the size it is I have to hold back.
