i recently had a cyst begin to drain which scared me because i had no idea what it was. went to the doc who sent me to a surgeon. plan to have the surgery in a week (9th) and then i have to move back to school the 25th. the surgeon plans on giving me a wound vac which i have heard speeds healing time. my question is how long should i expect to be in the healing process. i am 20 years old, extremely fit, eat very very well, and exercise a lot. i have had large open woulds before (granted on a smaller scale to this) and they healed relatively quickly. im worried this will prevent me from being able to enjoy my time at school as well as interfere with my academics. if you have any experience with this and are willing to share a helpful word, i would greatly appreciate it.
Hi Patrick. I don't want to scare you but I would be very hesitant to have an open excision surgery(which is what I assume you are scheduled for) with just over two weeks to recover-even with a wound vac. My son's first surgeon suggested open excision surgery with wound vac and estimated three weeks for recovery and made the wound vac sound easy. When I got a second opinion that surgeon said the wound vac would need to be on for 8 weeks or more, and painted a less glamorous picture of the vac.. If I were you I would be asking the surgeon a lot of questions and doing a lot of research before going through with it.
thank you for the advice. i am very hesitant about it but my mother is an RN and works with lots of wound vacs. she says they are fairly simple to conceal in a backpack which would allow me to go to class. the doctor said it would take roughly 8 weeks to heal but he said a young healthy person such as myself may be able to remove the wound vac after roughly 4 weeks and go with just plain old dressings from there on out as long as i am very diligent with the cleaning and so forth. has anyone used these before and have any first hand experience to share?
Hi Patrick, My surgeon put the wound vac on me 2 weeks after my surgery because the wound was so large. I had it on for about 5 or 6 weeks. The wound vac itself is really not a problem. It has to be changed 3 times a week, which is far better than twice a day. It's just a tad inconvenient having to carry it around everywhere. I was very greatful to have mine because I know that without it, I would not have healed as fast as I did. It also really helps to keep out infection so you don't have to worry about that as much. If you are going with the open wound surgery, I definitely recommend the wound vac vs. normal packing. Also, I noticed the wound vac helped make sitting a bit easier because it actually adds some firmness back there. I would go to the wound clinic 3 days a week and the mornings of my appts I would have my husband take the wound vac off so I could shower and rinse out the wound. Then he would re-pack it with gauze until my appt. I noticed that sitting wasn't as comfortable when I didnt have the wound vac on. I think getting it during your surgery will be easier too. Mine came later becuase the surgeon didn't know how big the wound would be, so after the surgery it took a couple of weeks to get the vac in and set me up with the wound clinic.
hey patrick - i've just had a vac on for around 6 weeks (post 3 lots of surgeries and multiple wound infections - had an original open wound without packing, then a cleft lift, then a wash out from an infection, then essentially another wash out/open excision from cleft lift scar line caused by infection from vac gauze) - it DEFINITELY sped up the healing process, but i would recommend double checking what they're planning on packing it with, as gauze caused an infection for me (foam worked much better). the vac's do hurt a bit when they're first put on. mine felt like i was being stung by wasps, but the pain subsided after ~ a week. it's certainly not the most comfortable thing, but it heals up the wound a lot faster and also you know that it's being kept clean! hope everything goes ok!!
