A week after my surgery, I got to go home. I couldn't wait to get a shower because my hair was greasy and plastered to my head. I hadn't been able to wash it for a week. My legs were so swollen, I could barely bend them enough to step into the tub. But I wasn't going to let this beat me. I was going to get through this. The next day, I got up several times to walk up and down the hall. Then I noticed I was leaving a trail. The thing they had warned me might happen, had happened. My incision was infected and draining. The nurse practitioner had warned me that this might happen because of my colon leaking out during the resection. Back to the doctor I went.
My incision was opened back up and a huge bandage covered my whole stomach. My daughter described this like a huge baked potato opened up. I was assigned a home nurse and a wound vac was ordered.
The wound vac is an amazing invention. It works by applying negative pressure, like a vacuum, to the wound area. A sponge is inserted into the wound and covered with a plastic bandage, with a tube attached to a pump. The pump is in a little bag that you carry around with you.
http://www.kci1.com/KCI1/vactherapy The nurse came out every 3 days to re-dress the wound. After 6 weeks of treatment, the insision was almost completely closed and healed.
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