If you had an infection that required packing....

White0rchid · October 2012

How long did it take to heal? I had my RCS on Sept 4 and it became infected at 9 days post op on Sept 13. My OB ordered home health care to come out and pack it once per day and put me on antibiotics. They taught DH how to pack it and he changed it a second time every day. The infection appears to be totally gone and has been for a while, but the wound is still open. It's been 3 weeks of packing now and I feel like it's never going to close up. It's not a huge opening- maybe 3/4 of an inch.

I do have an appointment with my OB today to get the wound rechecked, but I was curious to see what you ladies experienced. TIA.

mben1119 · October 2012

My incision first opened up at about 2 weeks PP. I had it packed daily for almost 2 weeks, then it healed and we let it close. About a week later, it opened back up and was infected again. This time, we did superficial wound care (neosporin and gauze) daily, and it finally closed at 11 weeks PP.

BritanyV · October 2012

Mine took a few weeks, I was seeing a wound care specialist and when it was small like that they used this stuff called Prisma Matrix wound dressing and it closed everything really quickly. If your incision isn't small enough for that, we were using Silvercell before that and it really helped make it small quickly.

cuppaco · October 2012

I am probably a super extreme case - but I am 6 months out and still packing mine c/s incision.

Got an infection 7 days PP. Was hospitalized for 10 days. Home health care for a month. DH was taught to pack the wound - and we've been doing wound care nightly for 6 months.

My infection was life threatening, my incision opened up in 3 places, and I've had 3 re-occurances of the infection. There is one spot (the first/worst one) still open, but it seems to be healing now. I'm hoping we will be done with this in the next 2 weeks.

Ramirezfam11 · October 2012

Im going through this right now, first my husband had to change out my packing daily & weekly by my wound doctor. When you go ask about a vac machine, you do have to carry it around with you & wear it 24/7 but it helps heal the wound alot faster. I had my incison open 8 days after my c section only because part of it got infected due to the staples. then for about a week & a half they had packing on it, my doctor didnt want me to go months on packing so she adviced me to wear the vac machine. after having it on for 5 days my wound has healed up a whole lot! a home health care nurse comes to my house & changes the tubes twice a week & i go once to doctor office so she can examine me & change it. she said this past monday that this friday it should heal well enough that i can do the rest packing & let the rest of the wound heal up on its own since it is very small incision compared to how deep it was when it first happened. So ask your doctor about the vac machine!

macschic · October 2012

Sorry you are going through this. I am having the same experience. My incision became infected and started to reopen so I had to have surgery to completely reopen and clean the wound. I am now 4 days post op and still in the hospital on IV antibiotics. I had a wound vac placed two days ago. I am hoping to be discharged tomorrow to home care. It has been an awful experience and I hope that your recovery is much smoother than mine. I have heard that the wound vac does lend towards a speedier healing. Not sure if you are a candidate, but you may want to ask your OB if this is an option.

Good luck!

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