My New Bum

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?

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.

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. 

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.