How long should it take for a chest wound to close?

[worriedinalabama]

My husband was released from the hospital after spending 35 days in ICU, 28 days in a long-term acute care facility and 14 days in a rehab hospital. He had a triple bypass on May 7 and a pulmonary embolectomy caused by a reaction to heparin on May 16. He had to have a tracheostomy on June 3 to help him be weaned from the vent, which he was, and he still has necrotic tissue, mainly on the toes of the right foot, for which we are seeing a wound care specialist. The wound care specialist is also caring for the chest wound from the two surgeries. When he arrived home, he just had one hole in his chest on the incision line that needed to be healed. We have gone through wound care nurses and a very brief time on a wound vac. I thought we had turned a corner. After the wound vac was removed, the wound started having a yellowish discharge that has been cultured three times and all they find is yeast. He has had a bone scan that found nothing. He has been on antibiotics, but that does not seem to have helped much. Now, two more wounds have opened under the initial one, all on the initial incision. I am so worried. Has anyone else had something similar? How did it get better? He has been out of the hospital since July 17.

[Sepsur]

My uncle had an incision to treat bowel cancer & the wound wouldn’t heal for months, the district nurse ( he is in Uk) started applying honey & then dressing the wound. All I can say is it worked. I don’t know the ins and outs of how much to apply, type of honey, if all wounds are suitable for this treatment .....

[FamilyHistorian in reply to Sepsur]

FYI they use a dressing already saturated with honey and they can work very well. They are expensive though

[FamilyHistorian]

Hi I am in the uk but had three different experiences:

I had various ops on my feet and these wouldn’t heal. In the end a vac was used and subsequently honey dressings.

2 years ago I had a decompression of my lumber discs. Initially I was out of hospital quite quickly but the wound wouldn’t heal. I was readmitted and stayed in over my 70th birthday. It took about 3 months to clear the infection and twice a week I was under general anaesthetic being cut open and having the wound cleaned out I had various drains and vac. throughout that time. The antibiotics were specially made for me and in the end the wound only healed when they were stopped as it was was found that some of my arthritis drugs were preventing the healing process.

In November 2019 I was admitted again this time for pneumonia and a failing heart valve. I had a full frontal wound which healed really well. The only problem was all the side effects of ICU and again in hospital for my 72nd birthday

So you can never really tell