Radiation complications

wound vac
Hi Jim! I had my ileostomy reversal on May 1st, and they immediately put me on a wound VAC by KCI. The wound was nearly 4" deep and 6" wide. It completely healed shut in six weeks! The nurses were amazed at how fast it worked. I had a nurse come to my house every other day to change the dressing. If you do get a wound VAC, use the white foam. It was a lot less painful when they removed it. I'm surprised they haven't had you on one of these already. Ask your doc about it.

Many hugs, and a quick recovery!
Krista

nudgie said:

Colostomy
When I had my resection in Feb 07 I developed an incision infection and had my fixed in the hospital, but it still required that I pack it and the colostomy site also with gauze until it healed on it's own. I think it took about 4-6 weeks.

just to add that i've been
just to add that i've been told there is scarring, yes; from radiation, maybe; from all the surgeries involved, yes; i've also been lucky that this scarring is not causing me any problems (so far); at least as much as we can tell (the docs all seem to have a standard answer - "well, that would be unusual" even when we all know it's not :-).

be good to yourself and patient - it's hard, but things will heal over time, even if it takes a few more weeks, or even months;
life is worth it!
best wishes to you.

kristasplace said:

wound vac
Hi Jim! I had my ileostomy reversal on May 1st, and they immediately put me on a wound VAC by KCI. The wound was nearly 4" deep and 6" wide. It completely healed shut in six weeks! The nurses were amazed at how fast it worked. I had a nurse come to my house every other day to change the dressing. If you do get a wound VAC, use the white foam. It was a lot less painful when they removed it. I'm surprised they haven't had you on one of these already. Ask your doc about it.

Many hugs, and a quick recovery!
Krista

I didn't know that some incisions from a reversal were not closed all the way. My incision was completely closed. They had a small needle under the skin that released a numbing agent for at least 3 days. I had no pain at all around the incision. Mine looked like the shape of a football for quite a few weeks until the swelling went down. My scar now is fairly thin and is about 3 inches long from the reversal. The scar from my resection is another story.

tiny one said:

I didn't know that some incisions from a reversal were not closed all the way. My incision was completely closed. They had a small needle under the skin that released a numbing agent for at least 3 days. I had no pain at all around the incision. Mine looked like the shape of a football for quite a few weeks until the swelling went down. My scar now is fairly thin and is about 3 inches long from the reversal. The scar from my resection is another story.

They stitched you shut, Tiny?
They told me they couldn't stitch my reversal site because of infection risk. it was left completely open, but it was stuffed with sponging for the wound VAC. I couldn't stand to look inside the wound when they had it open, but i saw how much sponge they were putting in there, and WOW! It almost never hurt. Only when they took the sponging out, and pulled the tape off of my skin to change it. We learned very quickly that the white sponges hurt much less than the black, so we used that the most. After about five weeks, i was put on a wet/dry bandage, and only had to wear that for a few days before the wound completely closed. I still have a good sized hole, but it's more like a giant dent. Mine is also shaped a lot like a football! I often wonder why this surgery site didn't hurt? The resection site took ages to not hurt any more. Then again, i have a lot of numbness around that first surgery site, including around where the ostomy was.

Hugs!
Krista