It is 5 weeks since I had my debulking surgery and my wound is not healing properly. The nurses in the treatment room are using honey dressings but it is still wet and oozing in 4 different spots. A big stitch poked out of one area and caught on my jumper and accidentally got pulled out which didn’t help things. Oncologist won’t start chemo again until it is healed and is pushing to have the wound swabbed and antibiotics if needed although the nurses don’t think there is any infection at the moment. Anyone else have this problem and any suggestions of what can be done to help it heal better and faster?
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Purplepansies54
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Hi Purplepansies54I had a similar problem and did get a course of antibiotics but my swab was negative. It’s a big scar in a very awkward location. In the end it did heal little by little. I was off chemo for over 10 weeks. Try not to worry, you’ll get there xx
Thanks Lindy. My sister in law is a nurse specialist in wound care and she said it would heal but might take another 6 weeks. The oncologist said if it’s not healed in 3 weeks he will skip the chemo and put me straight onto olaparib. I have been advised to eat lots of healthy protein as well.
Luckily my oncologist waited for me to heal but I was bumped on to Olaparib after chemo for recurrence. I wish now that I had insisted on finishing the chemo. My advice would be stick to your guns, let the wound heal but tell them you want to finish chemo and not be fobbed off with the Parp inhibitor xx
You must always follow the rules for chemo ie. report any spike in temperature or infection. I can’t remember being told not to do anything but I think the chemo was hitting me hard by then so I didn’t feel like doing anything naughty. x
Mine took 9 weeks to stop. The surgeon gave it a poke on week 5 and also prescribed antibiotics after the swab results came positive. I was reassured that this happens with a major surgery, as such, and to no fault on my part. However, the extent of it randomly varies between patients. Chemo started immediately, once it has dried out.
I'm 2.5 weeks post debulking and have an open wound too. This is my second major surgery as the tumour was removed in December and then completion surgery at the beginning of this month.
In both cases I have had open wounds which were swabbed and showed infection. I was prescribed strong antibiotics both times even though it didn't look too bad. They have also been packing the wound with aquacell to aid healing.
I'm going to have it redressed today and have been asked by my Macmillan nurse to get it reswabbed to confirm the infection has gone.
Chemo won't commence until my wound has healed either.
Trust your instinct and ask for the swab. If your nurse won't do so, call your hospital/surgical team.
Thanks TillyMint. I am going to ask for it to be swabbed tomorrow as it’s started to bleed through the dressings today. I hope your wound starts to heal quickly and you can continue with treatment.
Please please push for swabbing of the wound. I had district nurses coming in 3 times a day (I was discharged from hospital the day everyone was kicked out due to covid March 14th 2020) wound was slightly broken down and for 2 weeks it got worse and worse and so did I. The nurses would not swab it. Kept saying 'no it looks clean there is no smell' 'We don't swab unless there are signs' was all they kept saying. Needless to say when lower part of wound had completely opened up and I was getting more and more poorly( from belly button to pubic bone) they swabbed it. In total it took 5 months to heal and did so eventuality with the use of antibiotics and for the latter part a'vac machine. I was distraught at the delay in chemo restarting. I can never get away from the thought that had they have swabbed and treated it earlier I would not have had the distress caused and I would have had chemo sooner and got maximum effect from it. I have had to have a further full course of chemo and now I am on maintenance and doing ok.If they are not already, ask for the tissue viability nurse to be involved.
I didn't have usual signs of infection partly because I was on vety high 'post up' pain relief so no temperature etc. They seemed to ignore this and stuck to their protocol.
Infection causes disolvable stitches to dissolve before wound has had a chance to start healing process. Cancer treatment means normal protocols and rules don't always fit but some seem to either not know this or choose not to listen when you tell them you are feeling worse and worse.
Push for it to be checked for infection . It may stop you having to go through what I did.
So sorry to hear that you are experiencing this. I hope it heals soon. It might be worth checking the rationale for skipping the post op chemo? My scar healed well but my Onc wouldn't restart chemo until 7 weeks to allow my to recover more and was willing to delay further if needed. However I did start Avastin at the same time as maintenance. There may be some ruling on the time period to start maintenance from the 'drugs police'! Ovacome helpline may be able to advise? Best wishes for your recovery xx
Thanks Moroni. Yes I think there might be a time frame for when I canstart Olaparib. I am back to see the oncologist in 10 days so will discuss all of this in detail. Your reply was really helpful.
You poor girl, l did get an abcess on the scarr and that was weeping and sore but only in one spot.The Doctor gave me antibiotics and dry dressings and although it took awhile it did do the trick. Hope it soon clears up l remember it was very sore & uncomfortable. Lets hope they get it sorted soon for you the dry dressings certainly made it more comfortable and stopped the weeping through my clothes. Sending love & gentle hugs SheilaFxxx
Hi darling )) Oh YES/ I had this problem exactly 13 month ago after my big debulk 2 " weeks after the surgery at home i pulled my scar plaster in the shower because the big edge of it was coming of anyway. And to my horror high up under my bubs scar got open about inch and a half Its started dripping lots of liquidise watery stuff right on the floor and i god panicked and scared ! It wasn't painful but seeing what inside it make me scared and dizzy )) I called emergency hotlines, GP and my team . And yes I v been treated by nurses in GP very nicely but not with honey special cream right away. They only thought about this cream after 3 weeks things wasn't healing ! I actually suggested to them if I can use organic high Manuka honey on the wounds. They said NO, cream have more special things for this purpose and not so harsh. I had 3 weeks of antibiotics too.
Then a bit of scar opened inside around my belly button too. I wend to London Marsden they wanted to see it. They even took photos. But my surgent said its happened to people and its OK you wont die of it , but it will prolong time to start chemo treatments till its closed up more or less . He said its should healed in 4 weeks after opening and completely close up 2 more weeks. And a yes I had antibiotics too and went to GP 2 times a week. I was giving lots of dressings to clean myself if its needed at home . Which I did.
I started my chemo on 8 of May 6 weeks after this ordeal. Scar now looks a bit wider when its opened but who cares now about beauty side of it ))) You be OK don't worry please xxx
I see a Cranial Osteopath who uses laser light therapy for muscular and joint issues. But she also used it when I had my preventative mastectomy to help my nearly dead nipple come back to life. (I'm a brca+). It needed a lot of healing and the consultant was amazed when it survived.
She also used it over my debulking wound/scar when I had PPCancer. Its non invasive, does not need to touch the skin.
The company who make it are called Thor Laser. Other practitioners will use this type of
treatment. I am in Bucks.
Don't know if it would help, but might be worth a look.
Plenty of fruit and veg for vitamin C and maybe take a supplement. Turmeric for its anti inflammatory properties and as you say protein, this can be in the form of beans, peas and lentils, doesn’t have to be meat. Good luck
I was about 10 days in hospital but l am classed as high risk with having a brain tumour already. Its all risk assessment with me. I do try to have Turmeric nearly every day if its up to my husband. He makes me chicken soup lots of veg & pulses then freezes batches and adds the Turmeric a couple of teaspoons full in soup for 2My husbands swears it keeps my CA125 stable
and he could be right l didn't have the Turmeric
for a few weeks on holiday recently and it went up. Thankfully my darling got me back on the soup and my CA125 back to normal. Coincidence it might be but if it works l will take it. De bulking operation a very major op really too which l recovered quite fast really apart from scar problem l was fine really. But if something not working for you don't suffer in silence it won't get better you need help, thats what l did at first. And my Doctor said l was silly and ld probably made it worst. So expert advice best to be safe. Love SheilaFxxx
I was in hospital 6 days after debulking. I had a pulmonary embolism post surgery and am on Fragmin for 6 months so don’t know if that is affecting healing.
I had internal stitches for the recent incisional hernia repair but superglue (or whatever the surgical equivalent is) worked wonders for me. Took a while but better than staples. Wishing you the very best!
Hi Purplepandies, I also had an open wound, in three separate places. I ended up back in hospital twice on IV antibiotics. It was packed with 4 strips of 2cm aquacel ribbon. I was given a vac dressing after a month of it not healing. I had the vac for 12 weeks. This helped lots, but it was still being packed with 1cm ribbon until 11 months after surgery. My oncologist cancelled my chemo as he said the risks outweighed the benefits, for which I am grateful, as I needed a further 3 courses of oral antibiotics. The nurses caring for the wound would swab as soon as there was any sign of infection and I was given oral antibiotics immediately. It’s now been healed for about 4 weeks and I’ve just had the results of a scan which showed NED. I would definitely ask the nurse to swab your wound. My nurses worried that the bits that had healed would open again if an infection got out of hand.
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