Wound Vac

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bunkermonkey153
I was wondering if anyone as ever had a wound vac put in? I'm getting one today to help heal after my surgery and I was wondering what to expect.
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sfgiantsfan
I had a wound vac machine after my surgery for about 5 months and then once it wasn't helping any long went a different route. I would say to expect discomfort when they change it. My in home nurses used lidocaine when doing the changes. Also make sure you share any issues you have with it to your doctors or nurses! Also do know that it is expensive because you pay a daily rental fee and pay for the supplies that are used. However, I went through KCI and you may have a different company that bills a different way. If you have any other questions let me know.

Ericka
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Past Member
Hi:) I had a wound vac also to try to help heal a huge fistula in my abdomen after surgery. It does pretty much what the name implies. It sucks all that junk out of you it goes into a bag attached to the other end of it. I got mine through KCI also, but Medicare paid for mine, which was a God send. And yes, Ericka is right; when they change it, there will be discomfort. My fistula was really large open, so they had to give me morphine drops to put under my tongue to numb the pain. But you do get through it. I had to wear one for almost 4 months.

Hang in there. You can do it!

Let me know how you get along.

Sunny:)
sfgiantsfan
I ended up having one because they had to take so staples out early so it was quite a large opening on my abdomen. If I can suggest anything is to make sure you are proactive in the process and make sure that you tell the person changing it that you are having discomfort. There were days for me that the nurse went slower and then there were days where I told her to just change it quickly because I wanted it to be over with. I usually pictured myself on a beach to take my mind off the changing! Also double check that the company your doctor uses is a preferred provider because the hospital messed up with my insurance and I was being charged as KCI was an out of area provider and when I got my first bill I almost passed out because of the amount of it.

I will be sending good thoughts your way!!!

Sunny,

Did the morphine drops work? If they did I am sad that I didn't know about that. I usually took a pain pill right before and then the nurses used lidocaine into the sponge area.

Ericka
Past Member
Good AM Erika:) Yes the drops were wonderful:) Only felt a twinge since they were put under my tongue, it went to work immediately. Before that, when they would go to change my dressing, I'd have tears running down my face it hurt so bad that was with the lidocaine. Glad that's over with.

Told the guy who asked us the question to keep in touch with me to let me know how he gets along with his. Poor guy. We can indeed relate, can't we?

Sunny
 
Stories of Living Life to the Fullest from Ostomy Advocates I Hollister
bunkermonkey153
Cool thanks for the advice.

I'm not sure if they are using lidocaine with me or not. as far as I can tell they pull the old tape off, pull out the sponge, clean it up, fill it in with new sponge, seal up the wound and send me on my way. There's not to much in the way of discomfort but I'm only on day 5. We'll see what happens. Thanks everyone!
autumndreamr
I had a wound vac for about three months after my second surgery. It was a pain to carry around, made me stoop over with the weight of it when walking, as I was weak from being in the hospital so long. But I don't remember much pain during changes; that is, I was in a steady amount of pain and it didn't increase with the changing. But it was effective at helping my rather large wound to heal, so I guess it was a good thing. I did have one inexperienced nurse take 5 hours to change everything, but thankfully none of the rest took that long.
Past Member
I had a wound vac in the hospital and then the portable vac at home. It worked really well. I had a cystectomy last year and had my bladder removed due to cancer. The stoma worked perfectly and I am cancer free now for 15 months. However, the incision where they did all the work became horribly infected and so much skin and tissue had to be removed that I had a large hole that wouldn't heal. The plastic surgeons took over and the vac did the job exactly as they predicted. As the others said, dressing changes can be difficult and sometimes horrendous. I had a nurse who used the adhesive remover wipes that they used on children to remove dressings and it worked like a charm. No more tears for me. She also wet the sponge that is inserted into the wound as it dries between changes. Removing the dry sponge from the wound is one of the sources of pain. Wetting it before removal makes a big difference. Having a nurse who has time and really understands what is happening makes a bigger difference.
Slow momma
I had colon cancer and had surgery right away. They had a wound vac on me after surgery. They kept it on maybe 3 or 4 weeks and decided to dry pack it as it just wasn't working. It was constantly getting clogged and when they changed the stuff it was very painful. It wasn't pulling out all the gak like it should and my wound smelt awful from the infection. In 3 months my wound has gone from needing 12 qauzes to needing 4 or 5 in 3 months. The hospital staff was very pleased with my healing. Got a long ways to go yet.
I now have a iliostomy for life. Good luck to you.
bunkermonkey153
Thanks everyone!

So far the only issue I've had so far was an allergic reaction to the tape, but I can live with that. From the sound of things I'm glad that they waited a couple of months before putting the wound vac on me. That sounds like a lot of complications can happen if you put one on right away.
Slow momma
I have trouble with tape...allergic to most of it. They use mefix on me know for tape. It's better than paper tape. Guess the wound vac just don't work for everyone. I hope yours works out well. Only thing I didn't like with my wound vac was when they had to change the stuff and it was painful on my wound when tearing off the tape and stuff.
Good luck to you
;Barbara
Past Member
Yes Barbara it was quite painful when they changed my dressing too. I had to take morphine drops under my tongue just to get through it. And I still have a fistula where the wound was that sometimes leaks poop out of it. Not nearly as often as it used to tho, thank God. And it finally stopped making those awful whistling noises like it used to. That was so embarrassing.

We all have our stories to tell, don't we?

Well u take care. And if u ever wanna just talk, my name is Sunny.

TTYL

Sunny
Slow momma
Yes. We all do have stories to tell sunny. I'm just thankful to be around to tell them. I nearly died two times with what I went through and then about 6 weeks after my surgeries one of my doctors told me i was very lucky as most people that have the surgeries I did usually don't make it. So I thank God for letting me live. It was awful and I pray I never have to go through it again.
I'm glad they decided to remove my wound vac, as my wound healed a lot faster by just packing it instead of the wound vac on it. I'm hoping its all healed in another two months or so.
Thanks for your reply sunny. Have a blessed day and a very happy 4th of July tomorrow!!
Barbara
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