Wound Care Stories

My Story:

Non existent aftercare

I have recently had two lots of surgery on my ankle after the first one was not successful. So after 8 weeks of waiting I was back under the knife. I did however notice that prior to the second bout of surgery the scarring and tenderness around the area was bearable and rather understated. It was after the second op that the problems started. The same surgeon went back in through the same scar to conduct the operation and lengthening the incision to insert the screws and plates. That was back in Oct 2015, I am now still experiencing constant pain and tenderness in the scar and surrounding area. Any form of pressure in this area causes pain and wearing my work boots is a definite no-no, I even feel a lot of discomfort when it comes to washing the area, and I can feel the screw ends beneath the skin, but the scarring becomes awfully dry and the skin becomes flaky on the actual scar, resulting in me needing to try and keep it moist with moisturiser, which is painful and has to be done gingerly. Does anyone know of any good ointment that are fit for purpose as I have tried antiseptics and general moisturisers without much success. The area constantly seems to be inflamed and tender and I've been advised this could continue for the foreseeable future due to the closeness of the metalwork to the surface not happy about that idea.

I have also, after a recent review, been informed that osteoarthritis has set in, therefore they want to bring me back in and have my ankle joints fused and two screws replaced so that will be me back to square one now, with extra scarring to contend with no doubt . So any advice you could give on caring for scarring and surrounding area would be invaluable please!! As I was never given any advice from any medical professionals about scar care it just seems to be that it was a case of “we have done the operation!! now get on with it “. I don’t know if anyone has felt the same about their experience about scarring aftercare and the fact that it was no existent, certainly in my case there was none in place where I think there should have been at least a bit of information around the care and maintenance of scarring introduced into any aftercare service provided by the professionals. Wonder if anyone else agrees.

Story by John

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