As some of you know I have issues with delayed wound healing following my therapeutic mammoplasty. I am now on silver dressings covered by allevyns. The problem is they don’t stay on. My skin is very red and so have been using civil on but definitely making sure it is fully dry. It makes no difference whether it’s us doing the dressings at home or the hospital doing them. I’m allergic to micropore. I have tried opsite/tegaderm and they literally just peel off. Any recommendations please xx
Botty I think Brave had a problem with her tegaderm staying in place whilst on rads in feb , i think she had some kind of stretchy stockinette dressing that held stuff in place ask the hospital about it I know you can get that kind of dressing for limbs for burns but not sure if they make it big enough for chests
Jen x
Thank you. My sister suggested that too but I can’t find any measurements on amazon. I’ll mention it to the breast nurse tomorrow. It should have read cavilon not civil on lol on my first post xx
Hi Bettyboo, do you need a dressing that absorbs, as in is the wound oozing ? What’s the name of the silver dressing? I can probably help xx
The silver dressing us aquacelAg and then allevyn on top. The hospital use the allevyn classic but the GP prescribes either gentle border or adhesive plus. I have even had the spare strips that come with the pico dressings put on the edges by the hospital but even they failed this time. Also there is some overgranulation that hasn’t been helped by the silver. I think it’s because the dressings all screw up and come away from the bottom first.
Thank you for your reply any suggestion you have will be gratefully received. Am currently working out how much damage that new gorilla tape would do to my skin ??
Have they tried oe suggested/discounted using medihoney dressings? May or may not be suitable but I know they do get used to aid healing
Hi. I had honey in the first place which lifted the necrotic tissue and did a brilliant job. However they reverted to silver because the wound was over granulation on the honey.
Hi Deb. Thank you so much for the info. What happened initially is the T incision on my therapeutic mammoplasty necrosis due to lack of blood supply. There have swabs taken as various times and no infection has been evident. The honey was used for two weeks to lift the slough. They had to get the ninja scalpel to the final resistant pedicure of stubborn dead stuff. After that they put honey on once more but then decided to go for silver to help the overgranulation. This initially worked and there is some lovely new skin migrating across the largest of the wounds. However I am 6 weeks post op today and the oncologist was horrified at the size of the biggest wound still. It is approx 3.5x3.5 cm. The other one is slightly smaller. Obviously I cannot start chemo like this and originally we had to go to daily dressings as it was far too wet to be left and the BCN was worried about the healthy skin.
However the dressing decides for me by deciding after about 36 hours to remove itself. There is still a fair amount of bleeding although it’s difficult to say whether that is all blood or staining from the silver. My healthy skin between the two areas is now red but feels a bit leathery. Tbh it looks like a fungal rash but there is nothing to substantiate this just me trying to describe what it looks like. I am concerned we are running out of time. I am doing as little as I can to avoid excessive movement in that area.
I don’t smoke (never have) or drink. I am overweight but have increased protein intake and generally looked into wound healing optimum nutrition. The oncologist told me on Friday the blood tests 3 weeks ago showed my vitamin D levels were in my boots. So now on supplements for that. My Hb is 119 which the registrar 3 weeks said as long as I am getting no symptoms is fine although lower than they would like. I am going stir crazy with panic thinking I won’t get my chemo in time. I want to keep the dressing on as long as possible however as it comes up to the time it gives up it is also extremely sore.
Do you mind if I send you a picture somehow so you can see what I mean? Thank you so much though for your ideas already xx
I don’t know why I put Deb instead of buster. So sorry I was convinced you were Deb earlier. Xx
Also thank you to everyone else who has replied. Anita am I right in thinking you are also a carer for your hubby? Xx
Just glad I’m not going mad and you are called Deb. I could have sworn I saw it somewhere but then doubted myself. Well I have been to clinic this afternoon and they took one look and called on consultant as I now have a red rash going up to my neck and round to my armpit that definitely wasn’t there yesterday. My temp was 37.9. They have punch biopsied my rash. Silver nitrate sticked my over granulation. Put me on antibiotics used pico dressings x2 so 2 pumps in a drain bag and said no improvement tomorrow have to be admitted. One of the pics pumps is doing my head on with intermittent buzzes. But no leak light.
Thank you for everything today. Fingers crossed this new regime works. Hugs Sarah
Just little old me again!! Well I have to say I have felt like a new woman with the pico dressing. I actually suggested visiting my sister in law who was on a day off. She was the ODP for me when I had my op. However the 1st dressing only lasted 36 hours before we couldn’t get a seal as it was too saturated. They have changed it today and burnt some more overgranulation off. However very regularly we are hunting down leaks. I am thinking this is because I have 3 dressings. 2 whole ones and a half of one. I have two pumps one of which is fine and the other complains regularly. This is the pump that has to cope with the one and half dressings. Has anyone else had this problem? It doesn’t seem to matter how often we put a sealing strip on it just occurs elsewhere. It is liveable with and I know from the feel of the dressing the negative pressure is working but equally it can get annoying xx