The box containing the wound vacuum and supplies arrived on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon, the wound nurse installed it. It worked fine, suctioning and burbling through the night. On a lift Wednesday morning, the vacuum seal was broken. Unfortunately, before I could reseal it with fresh adhesive, the black sponge inside the wound unraveled and fell out.
The wound nurse said she'd come over on Wednesday afternoon to insert a new sponge and get the vac going again. Unfortunately, when she came to look at it, her assessment was there was too much slough in the wound to use the vac. Apparently, you shouldn't use it if the wound's surface has too much slough and Skip's wound didn't pass the test.
So, she put in some Aquacell AG for overnight. Today, Thanksgiving, she came in the late morning (even though she isn't working today!) and changed the dressing. She was very pleased with the results of the Aquacell AG overnight and expects we'll keep using that until the next steps are worked out with Skip's MD.
At this point the nurse will communicate with the plastic surgeon we're working with at the Wound Care Center to see if Skip should go in for surgery to be debrided so the vac can start back up as soon as possible.
Skip's physical therapist is recommending a specialized hospital bed that promotes circulation and requires Skip to stay in it virtually all day. Not sure when that will happen, but we're talking about taking the queen-sized platform bed out of the bedroom and replacing it with the hospital bed and a twin for me. This way, we can continue to sleep together but Skip can benefit from the therapeutic features of the hospital bed.
We're hoping the bed option gels together much faster than the wheelchair did. The wheelchair took over one year from point of selection to delivery.
Oh, and, Happy Thanksgiving, my American friends!
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2 comments:
The move to a hospital bed has the potential to cause changes in a lot of other areas. For us, it placed dramatic limitations on our ability to snuggle and travel -- two things we both love to do.
Make sure you leave yourself enough space around the hospital bed to work with Skip. I hate sleeping in a twin bed, so instead I opted for a queen sized Murphy bed with the best mattress available. It comes down at night once BR is all snug and settled, and goes up during the day to leave ample room for caregiving activities.
BR and I hope you and Skip were able to enjoy your Thanksgiving. We are thankful for the many educating and entertaining posts you have shared over the past year.
Steve - Skip is very concerned about the impact of a hospital bed. She's concerned the dogs won't be able to get up onto the bed anymore (which I've assured her won't be the case). It also is another thing in her life that says "disabled."
We did have a good Thanksgiving. Thanks for your comment on the posts. Glad you've enjoyed them.
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