The trouble with Bandages….

Almost as traumatic as the initial injury has been the removal of the bandages and tape.  Tape always seems to be stuck to a burn area, pulling off skin in its removal.  The ‘cling’ used at the hospital stuck to everything and was extremely hard to get off, as were the gauze bandages they used.  The doctor tried something different, but I ended up having to hold Samantha’s hands all night long so she didn’t scratch, and the next day she had blisters covering her legs where she reacted to the tape, poor thing.

Figure 1 – Tuesday at Doctors, Day 4.

Finally, the wound care nurse who truly knows Best Practice, took one look at the bandages that had been used, shook her head and the next day a huge box of non-painful, self-adhesive bandages arrived, hallelujah.  Seriously, why is it so difficult to get proper bandages?  Our doctor didn’t have them, I checked our $50 first aid kit from Canadian tire and all the bandages in there are inadequate.  As the wound care nurse said, they just don’t know best practice, and neither do people who make first aid kits I guess. 

 

Back to the nurses first visit last Tuesday.  Expecting to fight yet another battle over the Medi-honey (no, the doctors at the hospital had NOT heard about it and I had to bring up a few research articles) I held up the alginate honey bandage, and defiantly said ‘I want to use these, are we going to have a problem?’  She was surprised I had it, told me it was the ‘new big thing’, she had heard of it but they didn’t have any yet and both she and her manager were excited to see the results – again, hallelujah.   She assessed the wound and estimated Samantha would be off school for at least 3 weeks in total, probably 4.

 

Figure 2  Wednesday, Day 5.  Nurse predicted 3-4 weeks off school

We had a new nurse today (Sunday), she was surprised that we had been scheduled an appointment with the plastic surgeon.  When I pulled out my camera and showed her the original picture of the wound she gasped, her mouth dropped open and she couldn’t believe how amazing Samantha is doing just over 1 week later, new skin is already growing.  Absolutely amazing she said with a smile.  It really is.  If it weren’t for the doctor’s appointment tomorrow I’d send her to school, as it is, she’ll go on Tuesday.  Only 7 days missed, ¼ of what was predicted.

 

figure 3 Sunday, day 9.  If it weren’t for an (unneeded now) doctor’s appointment, Samantha would be going back to school tomorrow.  2 weeks earlier than predicted possible.