Has anyone started chemo when their wound hasn’t healed properly?
When I saw the oncologist last tuesday, she noted that the wound under my arm from the lymph clearance was a bit ‘sloughy’ and asked for a swab to be taken from it to check for infection. Since then, the dressing has been changed twice a week by the district nurse, and each one has commented on it being ‘sloughy’ and saying that they’d make sure that the next one to visit would have the appropriate kit to clean it off. It never has. In the meantime, the wound appears to have been getting bigger and bigger… it’s now at least twice the size that it was when the onc looked at it. I have made an appointment with the practice nurse at my local GPs for tomorrow morning to get it redressed (and hopefully de-sloughed)
I’m a bit concerned as
a) I’m going on holiday for 9 days on friday and I don’t want it to continue to grow at it’s current rate and
b) Will I still be able to start my chemo with a large area of unhealed wound? I would have thought with the compromised immune system brought on by chemo that this could easily become infected… especially
Mell66, nothing I have experienced but I would think you need to get it treated very soon and probably more so given you are going on holiday. I do think the medics like the wounds to be healed as you say once you start chemo it can compromise the immune system.
Hi I am on my fifth chemo in two weeks x am sorry to say that the chemo won’t start if u have not healed as with the immune system been affected you are more prone to infection so they will delay it x
I had a wound that took an age to heal following my reconstruction. And yes, it does delay chemo as they can’t risk the infection and in addition chemo slows healing. They might make a judgement to go ahead if it is almost there, but it doesn’t sound as though you are close yet. Having said that, once the sloughing goes it can heal very quickly, and if you are anyway off on holiday it doesn’t sound as though chemo is imminent.
There are very fancy dressings that can accelerate healing. Ask about the pico dressing. It’s a battery powered vacuum pump that brings the blood vessels to the surface and has great results. I also had a fish collagen dressing - but apparently very few hospitals use that. The pico dressing i think only works once the sloughy bits have gone, but it was great for me. Your GP or district nurse may not be up to speed with these dressings - may be worth asking your hospital. It was the plastics dressing team who seemed to me to be very skilled in this field. Good luck. The sense of being delayed is horrible.