Hi everyone, I’m new to this and have been struggling to deal with my current surgery so thought I would post my story here as have been reading many others over my struggle! I’m a 20 year old university student in the UK and have had my PS for around 6 years. It was never a HUGE problem although I had a very small cyst and two sinuses and I feared they were getting worse as they began to drain a lot more than before.
I only found out what it was over the last 2 years and have only really pushed myself recently to get the surgery done (thinking better late than never) On the 5th March I had a closed incision surgery at a hospital where I live at university, I had around 7 stitches aswell as 4 tension sutures to keep the area apart. A few days after my surgery I came home to my parents house to rest and took time off uni.
My healing went smoothly and the only thing which hurt were the digging in oh the tension sutures which I got out 12 days after surgery ( Which was a relief!) Nurses said I had no infection and the area was very clean and neat. 2 days later I had my stitches out (14 days after op) and as soon as I came home the top of my wound opened (small slit) and serous fluid poured out and continued to when I moved. I went straight back to the nurse and she was confused as she said it looked well before and bandaged me up and sent me on my way.
The next day It seemed to have opened more and the draining was such a pain 🙁 Everytime I had a checkup the nurses would say it was still not infected and just serous fluid build up draining out. I then had a doctor look at it 5 days ago and he told me this was due to dead space filling with the fluid and it was good that it was draining and he said that within 2 weeks I should know whether it would continue to heal from the inside out and drain through the hole or completely open up. I just felt like there was no end and even now the constant changing of dressings is affecting my lifestyle. I saw the nurse again yesterday and the wound has opened slightly at the bottom, the holes are now big enough to pack so she did so with sorbsan ribbon and it didn’t hurt all that much which I was surprised about after hearing many stories.The bottom hole hardly drains anythiing atall compared to the top one and I’m confused to as why this is? She also didn’t pack that much into the bottom one but about 40cm into the top hole which she thinks may have been pushed into the space between the two holes? The nurse thinks it may actually all open up which she thinks will be a good thing as she can see how deep it is and she deals with alot of packing rather than closed incisions. She said the bottom was looking a bit red and I said I’d had a bit of a fever the last couple of days so my doctor prescribed my some anti biotics to take for 10 days just incase.
As it’s bank holiday now for the next 4 days I have made appointments every day at the walk in center to have my wound packed.I am slightly worried though as this morning a small part of my dressing fell out of the top hole and it was gunky from the serous fluid but look like it had torn off from the rest of the packing and I am worried now the dressing may be stuck inside under the closed part :S I was told to wash out the wound before packing each time with a shower head and if the packing falls out that is okay, so I’m going to do that in a bit before my app but I’m still really worried. After reading everyone’s horror stories I am really worried that my wound may never heal and in all honesty I just want my wound to open up now so I can see what I am dealing with. I was told to make an appointment with my consultant 4-6 weeks after my surgery and to go to my doctor/nurses if there are any problems. As my consultant is based at my university and is impossible to get hold of, I have just been visiting my doctor and nurses pretty much everyday which has been great help. I know it’s only been 3 1/2 weeks but I just feel like everything has gone downhill and am really struggling with my emotions as I’m a very active person and I just feel trapped and disgusting 🙁
I just hope I see some changes soon and that there isn’t a huge struggle ahead of me.