scraped hip on tire

[SCI-Nurse]

Chronic wounds can take a long time to heal on wound vac. As long as your care provider's have ruled out that there is no osteomyelitis (infection in the bone), the wound bed has been well debrided with a good pink wound bed, you have good nutrition; you have a good chance of healing the wound. The key is that your providers are keeping watch over the progress of the wound.
pbr

[lynnifer]

Stop smoking! It is killing you!

[rollin64]

Originally Posted by lynnifer

Stop smoking! It is killing you!

i know lynnifer. i was gonna start these patches i have til kld told me they constrict your blood vessels also. cold turkey won't work. i've been smoking since i was about 17 yrs old.


SCI NURSE:: he hasn't checked for osteo. it hasn't really been deep enough to get to bone, i don't believe. my HH nurse says she can see white in the bottom. nurses at the wound clinic said it was nice and beefy red so i don't know. HH measured yesterday and the length and width are both 0.2cm but depth is still at 0.9cm. my HH nurses think we need to change to packing it with those strips, like a wet to dry.

[SCI-Nurse]

Wet to dry is outdated as a wound treatment. Wounds should be kept moist. If it needs debridement, then collagenase or sharp debridement is best. You can still have osteo without seeing bone. An MRI will test for this, but have you also had a CRP (lab test) and sed rate (lab test) done? Both are nearly always elevated with osteomyelitis.

There are medications you can take, such as Chantix, that will help with your smoking cessation. Please discuss the options with your PCP.

(KLD)

[rollin64]

thanks kld. can't afford chantix, guess i could if i quit smoking but that's a double edged sword.

this dr. hasn't taken any kinds of tests at all. that's what i don't like about him. he doesn't work with the HH nurses that see it 3 times a week. it's either his way or no way. there's one other dr. in this wound clinic but dunno if it'd be smart to ask to let him look at it. i kinda feel stuck with this guy.

i'm sick of p-nut butter, sick of these nasty azz protein drinks, lying on my stomach making my back hurt, sick of this wound vac. it's so small, i just want it to heal.

[thehipcrip]

rollin64, even if it means driving a few hours to get there, please consider going to a different wound care clinic to have the sore looked at and discuss your questions and concerns. If you, gawd forbid, do have osteo, sticking with this doc would mean wasting months of your life trying to heal a sore that can't be healed until the underlying infection is eradicated. And during that time, the undetected osteo would have the chance to further infiltrate the bone, making treating it -- and healing you -- more complicated, costly, and more difficult from which to recover.

Ask your HH nurses who they'd go see if they had this sore and follow their lead. You deserve better treatment than ''my way or no way''.

[rollin64]

thanks THC. i go see him wed. i'll see what he does and ask about it again.

i did talk to my infectious disease doc today. they said they'd run the tests for me. i told em i would wait to see if he changes anything wed. first.

last time i seen him, 4 weeks ago they said i could try continuous. so i've kept it on continuous since then. it came up from 1.6cm to 0.9cm but it's been stuck there the last 3 wks. the wound clinic nurse said kci suggests continuous the first 48 hrs then 5 min. on 2 min. off. they say the intermittent is more like producing a natural blood flow, if you understand that, which makes since but....that's what we did the first 5 wks then the outside got tiny and the depth started going south.

my GP told me it could take a long time. is 2 months too long? am i getting ahead of myself? it's just worrying me cause the outside is almost closed but the depth won't fill in.

[november]

Hope it heals faster. 2mnths seems long, but I have a few friends healing sores that started more like 2yrs ago. Scary.

[rollin64]

Originally Posted by november

Hope it heals faster. 2mnths seems long, but I have a few friends healing sores that started more like 2yrs ago. Scary.

OUCH....

she measured today and it's still 0.9cm deep. but, it's a lil bit smaller than the wooden end tip of the long q-tips they use to pack and clean the wound with. if you all know what i'm talkin' about. i mean like less than an eighth of an inch.

[rollin64]

went back to the wound clinic today. he don't seem to think i need to worry about osteo still. which it has never been infected at all. does that make a difference?

he did take me off the kci pump, yayy. he started packing it with Algidex Ag packing strips. he said it had silver in it. i'll give it a try if no progress i'll get my inf. disease doc to check for osteo. it's still almost closed just 0.9cm deep.

he also said change twice a day, the nurses say once a day is fine.