One week post op and getting frustrated

Here is the link to my blog post. We are still trying to find dressings that will work for me and ones that can prevent the need for surgery or at least lengthen the time between debridements. I've tried every dressing in the cupboard at my hospital and I'm hoping that the plastic surgeon has new ideas... Otherwise I'll be starting med school in the same state I started sixth form...

I have been trying to think out of the box on this, Steph. This article is interesting, as it suggests that dressings don't really help healing or prevent infection (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21735390). I remember you said it takes pressure to prevent the overgrowth of tissue after surgery. I wonder what would happen if you sterilized a coin or something similar, placed it over the wound, and then wrapped it snugly in place without any dressing actually touching the wound?

You are the one who understands best what is needed to achieve healing and what must be avoided. If you think really hard about this and bounce some ideas off your friends, I'll bet you can invent a solution to this dressing problem. It's pretty clear to me that no fibers of any kind can touch your wound without messing up your healing. Are you taking doxycycline or some such to prevent infection?

Yeah, that's what I've been told but it certainly hasn't proved true. Through so many dressings, I still get infections and overgrowth so I guess I'm just trying stuff in hope that it'll work. What's certain is that I need no external help whatsoever to mess up healing but I just don't know what more I can do before I see this plastic surgeon, if I ever do... No, I'm not taking anything for prophylaxis because they're all worried about resistance. But at the same time, if I do get an infection it won't be good news since the debridement went as low as bone - and bone infections are never good news.

Thanks Eileen for your reply. I seem to have tried every dressing around in my years of searching but I've only found one that doesn't dry/stick to me. I liked the plastic layer ones when I had wounds on my leg from grafting but it doesn't work for my hand because the wound is so so wet that it will literally stick to everything, even those alginate ones that turn jelly when they touch water. The problem with hyperbaric chambers is that for me, they really increase my blood flow to the point that I'm bleeding heaving every day since I'm getting lots of bleeding already. I am totally in that position now, I'm confused as to why something that was meant to help has just left me in a worser state!

No worries - any advice/suggestions are very very welcome over here! I always irrigate with saline too but I need SO much before the dressings will even begin to cooperate. Exposure to air for me is also an issue because the skin becomes cold and painful, much like cracked lips but cracked wound edges. When I go to the hospital, I usually wrap the dressings lightly too just because I can't stand it when the nurses just go in and tear the day old dressings off. Still plenty of trial and error here and lots more to come I think, but I suppose I have to be ready for it :)

I know! Was kinda freaked out when I learned that lol! Worse still it turns to jelly under water and I did NOT know that the first time I used it! I've been trying to heal wounds for the best part of three years now but so far I'm just still at square one...! Thank you so much for your support, you're right in saying that it's great knowing you're not the only one. I just wish it was none of us sometimes, but I'm glad to have people around me that can empathise :)

Now here's something outside the box that may appeal to your sweet tooth, Steph: manuka honey. You can eat it and/or put it directly on wounds: http://manukahoney.com/resources/howtouse.html

Here's an article about using it for EDS wounds: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21471900

I knew about maggots but asleep or not, I'm totally put off by the idea and probably won't be trying it or thinking about it any ime soon. I haven't used aloe as of yet but my surgeon is very reluctant to let me put anything on it as the risk of infection is sky high - and keeping it covered most of the time (that, or soaking in saline) keeps the cracking at bay thankfully. I hope I won't have regrets, but at the moment that's what I'm really worried about. I don't want to look back, in the future, and know I could have been less stubborn about this all. I heard about the honey thing, and I've tried it to. Just all these things that promote healing also promote growth of granulation tissue which is just what we don't want. So it's a bit of a difficult one. We are trying to get rid of granulation and excess proteins while encouraging skin growth. Difficult one, really. Thanks for all the articles, will be asking my surgeon when I see him next week hopefully :)

You're being very patient with our suggestions, Steph. I'll give it one last try -- have you tried electrical stimulation? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2396465/

I'm really loving the new ideas! Thank you so so much for all this help, I can't wait to suggest these things to my doctors :) Never tried the electrical stimulation in fact, and haven't heard of it previously either. Most definitely some good food for thought there, hope that somewhere within this, my doctors find a suitable solution! Thank you very much :D