My husband has been fighting an infection in his leg for a month now. He did a hospital stay in early July, two rounds of strong antibiotics, and today he went for a follow-up and they had to open the site and drain it. He now has to clean and re-pack the open wound twice a day, and the spot is a bit hard to reach for various reasons. He's checking with a nurse-on-call service to see if that might be an option, but I'm wondering if anyone has done this before or has experiences they can share. Can I help him with this? Is it very painful to do? I'm a little nervous because I'm supposed to go away on Friday for the weekend and while he's fully mobile and not in pain generally, and was told he'll be fine with our 3 year old on his own, if this packing process is a painful, I'm nervous about him having to take strong painkillers (doc gave him dilaudid if he needs it) and being on his own. Would love any insights, thank you!
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@Mrs. Carrot: So, the most painful process is the unpacking when you have to unstick the packing material from the skin. If I remember correctly, you can put vaseline (or something like that?) on the entrance of the wound to help soften the material up when you need to unpack.
I had to do this with a wound on the under side of my face, which was terrible and disgusting and totally grossed me out. Once you get passed the gross out feeling, it gets easier. Hopefully he's not as squeamish as I was.
My mom and husband helped me pack and unpack my wound for the first few days when I was in pain and just couldn't do it mentally so, yes. You can help him with it. Just remember to do it slowly - he is in pain and he is giving control of this to you.
Honestly, once they drained my wound and I got the packing stuff in it, it felt so much better and my pain was reduced almost immediately. The pain will go away slowly day by day and I bet by this weekend, he will be ok to be alone with your 3 year old - he will just need to be able to pack/unpack the wound himself.
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My husband has a high pain tolerance so he was able to do it himself. I agree that using some type of gel to help it not stick would be helpful.
Maybe help set up a supply basket so that he has what he needs for dressings. The worst part for us was making sure the infection didn't spread and that he had all his supplies ready and washed really well afterwards.
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I had to have my C-section wound packed twice a day for 8 weeks after both of my daughters were born. Even if I could have reached it/seen it, I am too squeamish to have done it myself. Thank goodness my husband could do it. In my experience, it's not super painful- just an uncomfortable sensation. There were times mine was actually infected, and that hurt worse than when it wasn't. We had a little kit we kept in the bedroom, would lay down those big puppy pads on the bed and he would do it at night and after my morning shower. My daughter even got into it this last time, handing him things and watching. Gross.
Good luck to your husband- maybe he could get a home health nurse just for the days you are gone. Also, if you're going to be packing it, I would suggest watching doc do it first or getting a hands on lesson at doctor's office.
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I think it depends on how deep the wound is. I had an infected cyst on my back that was big and deep. The packing/unpacking was very painful and I couldn't have gotten someone to do it. I went into the dr office every day for a week and then twice a week for a month. It wasn't fun.
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