Still on the road to recovery and getting a little easier each day (mostly because of an exceptional husband and wonderful mother). The wound is measuring about 1.5 inches wide and 3 inches deep. A home health nurse has been coming daily but will only be able to come twice a week starting tomorrow b/c of insurance coverage. Jim was taught to do everything over the weekend and will have to play nurse twice daily. Basically he will remove the old packing (wet gauze packed up inside the wound), cleanse the outside with saline, cleanse the inside with a cotton swab and saline and then re-pack the wound with moist gauze.
After doing a little research i've learned that a wound is packed (instead of just letting it heal from the outside) for the following reasons:
It prevents the wound closing from the outside forming another abscess. If the wound heals from the inside out, it heals by layers and the top layers don't trap bad tissue or infection. Packing the wound also maintains a moist environment and helps absorb drainage from infection. When the packing is removed the drainage and potentially infectious matter is also removed.
Let me just say....this is THE MOST PAINFUL thing i've ever experienced. I would rather give birth to a hippopotamus without an epidural than have this thing cleaned and packed. The saline burns like a mother f@#$#er and having a bunch of gauze stuffed inside a 3 inch wound with a cotton swab is about as much fun as it sounds...especially in such a sensitive area as the breast. I typically take 2 pain meds and a limearita about 30 minutes before...and still cry like a baby during and after it's through. But I so appreciate Jim for being so brave, i'm not sure i'd be able to do it for him if the tables were turned.
Don't even get me started on the pain of breastfeeding/pumping. I'm afraid my breastfeeding days are numbered :-(
After doing a little research i've learned that a wound is packed (instead of just letting it heal from the outside) for the following reasons:
It prevents the wound closing from the outside forming another abscess. If the wound heals from the inside out, it heals by layers and the top layers don't trap bad tissue or infection. Packing the wound also maintains a moist environment and helps absorb drainage from infection. When the packing is removed the drainage and potentially infectious matter is also removed.
Let me just say....this is THE MOST PAINFUL thing i've ever experienced. I would rather give birth to a hippopotamus without an epidural than have this thing cleaned and packed. The saline burns like a mother f@#$#er and having a bunch of gauze stuffed inside a 3 inch wound with a cotton swab is about as much fun as it sounds...especially in such a sensitive area as the breast. I typically take 2 pain meds and a limearita about 30 minutes before...and still cry like a baby during and after it's through. But I so appreciate Jim for being so brave, i'm not sure i'd be able to do it for him if the tables were turned.
Don't even get me started on the pain of breastfeeding/pumping. I'm afraid my breastfeeding days are numbered :-(
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