Festering Wound

According to dubious stats I found on the internets, 3-6% of women suffer from C-Sec incision infections.  I am one of the lucky few.  If only I had this kind of luck with raffles and lotteries.  2 weeks postpartum the corners of my incision opened and began to ooze.  Since it was Saturday and I had no idea what to do, I went to urgent care where the doctor taped me up and told me to apply antibiotic cream.  After a week and increased puffiness, I finally got a hold of my OB.

I hobbled onto the examination table and she came to poke and prod at the incision.  After a few minutes of painful poking and hmmm-ing sounds from the dr, I asked if the wound looked bad.  She told me that doctors and patients have different interpretations of bad.  (This is when I should have realized that it was bad.)  She said, "For instance, a doctor thinks of a flesh eating bacteria as bad.  You don't have a flesh eating bacteria."  Well then, I should be happy?  Then she asked her assistant for scissors.  (This is where I finally realized it was bad and burst into tears.)  Since the wound was clearly not healing, the incision had to be opened up and drained.  At this point I made the HUGE mistake of taking a look.  I would provide a photo but then I would have to look at it again and that is just not happening.  The doctor called my husband in to instruct him on how to dress my wound twice a day,

1. Apply topical anesthesia for the pain
2. Scrub wound until it oozes blood
3. Stuff wound with saline soaked gauze
4. Tape dry gauze over wound

Yes it is as painful as it sounds, only 10 times worse.  At the follow up appointment, the dr said the the wound was making some improvement but was developing a smell so she instructed Jason to scrub harder.  Until this point, my husband wore his game face but the idea of having to scrub until blood oozes while his wife is shaking with pain took all the mustard out of him.  We booked an appointment with the wound care center at the hospital and the PT who saw us said that scrubbing was absolutely unnecessary.  My new treatment,

1. Shower and let the water run over the wound for 5 minutes
2. Stuff the wound with antibiotic foam
3. Tape dry gauze over wound

This is so much better even though the shower stings.  Think showering after chaffing that is 1cm deep and 2.8cm wide.

For the first time in my life I dread the shower but it is so much better than scrubbing.  In books you often read how the pain makes the hero weak at the knees and nauseated.  These passages always felt so melodramatic and I scoffed at them.  Now I know better as the first few showers left me clinging to the tile wall to keep from falling.  Never again will I scoff at weak knees passages.

I don't have a computer anymore, so I'm blogging on my iPad and finding it impossible to add photos. Until I figure it out, please forgive my lack of interesting photos. Hopefully my text content is interesting enough!