realist
11-27-2011, 03:17 AM
This is my disclaimer, I’m no doctor and this is not advice only what I have learned……….
Over the past five weeks I have received lessons in wound care. I was dumb enough to have a ladder slide out from underneath me. I went down more or less face first and poked a hole through my lip, broke a tooth, chipped another and cracked a bunch more. As I rode the ladder down I was gripping the rungs with my hands so my forearms got banged up along with my shins. So off to the hospital I went for a six mile, $2,200 ambulance ride. When I got there the wound in my lip was debrided and they stitched it up. My wife, who was with me, asked if they were going do anything about my leg since the hole was so deep, the doctor said no because it needed to heal from the inside out. This was a small wound less than a half inch long. They put a little antibiotic ointment on it with a Band-Aid. So off to home I went.
My lip closed quickly, inside was hamburger. Other than the stitches it pretty much healed itself. It was nothing that I could not have taken care of in a SHTF type situation. This was something that was pretty straight forward. I understand more about stitching now and it was a relatively simple fix that only took two stitches so I would be able to drink without it going out the hole through my lip.
My teeth were not too much of a problem. Long term the chipped tooth may have caused problems however that would have been a while off. The broken tooth I was lucky that it pretty much broke off in the middle and not at the gum line. I got a simple, but expensive, crown to cover it. In a TWOTWAWKI I think I could have gotten along without it being crowned. The tooth was in front off to the side and not a critical one. If I had to pull it I think that I would have had enough left that I could have gotten a hold of it.
The two dings on my shins, the hole in my left and a small cut on my right, both closed up quickly. Then fast forward nine days later my wife looked down at my leg and said your wound is oozing. There was a large tear drip of clear white stuff coming out that was about 1 cc of liquid that was thick. I had been told that it was suppose to ooze because it was healing from the inside out. However, two days later I could barely walk, so it was another trip to the doctor. He said he did not think it was infected but he took a swab anyway and sent it to the lab. I asked him what I could have done different and he said nothing. He said the initial doctor was right in leaving the wound open. I asked him if I should have used something like Neosporin. He told me that some people will get an allergic reaction to the triple antibiotics on large wounds, small cuts are alright. Instead I should use only something like a Polysporin. He then sent me to a wound nurse.
The wound nurse is trained to deals with hard to heal wounds. There are some people, who have wounds that just will not heal, this happens to some diabetics. She put some Lidocaine in the wound to numb it. After a while it was nice and numb then she told me it would only be the outside. She was right, she stuck a swab inside to clean some stuff out. I do not use any anesthetic when I have my teeth drilled I can tell you that little swab truly hurt. She then used debridement solution called Vashe. It smelled like bleach and did in fact contain the same ingredients. Pour it on a piece of sterile gauze and place it on the wound. She left it on to soak the wound for about five minutes. She then used a product called Silvasorb Gel. It is a silver antimicrobial wound gel that is stronger than the other topical antibiotics. Wounds like to be kept moist and that is what the Silvasorb will do as it heals. She then covered the wound with a gauze pad and 3M mircopore tape, paper tape. The next day the pain had gone from a 10 to a 2, not bad.
Two days later the doctor called to tell me that there was the beginning of an infection in the wound. So I am on Penicillin for the next ten days. He said the Penicillin and the Silvasorb will be able to work together to get the wound healed. I had hoped it would have been completely healed up by Thanksgiving, it is not.
So it has now been over a month for this simple wound to heal. After I went to the wound nurse I changed the bandage once sometimes twice a day. However the first nine days had I had the Silvasorb Gel I would have been using it each day also. This also would have increased the amount of supplies that I would have used.
So what did I learn?
• BE AWARE of the small cuts they can become BIG problems.
• Neosporin is good for small cuts. My doctor told me that in some cases with deep cuts the patient may develop an allergy to the Neosporin
• Polysporin is better for deeper cuts
• Vashe is good for debridement and irrigation of the wound I am trying to find a source to purchase some to have in my first aid kits. I am also looking into making my own.
• Silvasorb is stronger than the over the counter topical ointments. It is pricy at $32 per three ounce tube. I will be getting at least a couple of tubes. The come in 1.5 oz, 3 oz and 8 oz. I would recommend a couple of 1.5 oz, mine lasted three weeks.
• I used thick 4x4 gauze pads to cover the wounds. These were about three times thicker than the old thin type that I had, much better. Just for this small wound I have gone through 24 at this time. So buy thick if you can or the thin ones but also buy a lot. This was just a small wound but it took a lot of my supplies that in a TEOTWAWKI situation I may not be able to replace. If it had been a major wound it surly would have depleted a major chunk of my stocks. I will have a minimum of 100 in my supplies.
• I used 3M Micropore tape to hold the gauze in place. This is the paper tape. It worked great at keeping on my bandages. I think that in this situation, adhesive tape that I would have normally used, would not have worked as well.
On a side note approximately 10 years ago I severely burned my hand. The amount of wound dressing that I went through was amazing. It was for that reason I stocked up on a bunch. But that was large bulky dressings like Kling and Kerlex. This was a small wound; I can only imagine what it would take to deal with a gunshot wound. So it is for this reason that I am severely re-evaluating my first aid stocks. I generally have a large amount first aid supplies on hand at the house. I highly recommend that you consider the same. I am currently scheduled to take a gunshot wound care class next month so I will do a brief when I am done.
If you by chance have more information on wound care I would appreciate hearing from you. These are the things that we will have to deal with in a SHTF situation. It would be nice to be better prepared…
Over the past five weeks I have received lessons in wound care. I was dumb enough to have a ladder slide out from underneath me. I went down more or less face first and poked a hole through my lip, broke a tooth, chipped another and cracked a bunch more. As I rode the ladder down I was gripping the rungs with my hands so my forearms got banged up along with my shins. So off to the hospital I went for a six mile, $2,200 ambulance ride. When I got there the wound in my lip was debrided and they stitched it up. My wife, who was with me, asked if they were going do anything about my leg since the hole was so deep, the doctor said no because it needed to heal from the inside out. This was a small wound less than a half inch long. They put a little antibiotic ointment on it with a Band-Aid. So off to home I went.
My lip closed quickly, inside was hamburger. Other than the stitches it pretty much healed itself. It was nothing that I could not have taken care of in a SHTF type situation. This was something that was pretty straight forward. I understand more about stitching now and it was a relatively simple fix that only took two stitches so I would be able to drink without it going out the hole through my lip.
My teeth were not too much of a problem. Long term the chipped tooth may have caused problems however that would have been a while off. The broken tooth I was lucky that it pretty much broke off in the middle and not at the gum line. I got a simple, but expensive, crown to cover it. In a TWOTWAWKI I think I could have gotten along without it being crowned. The tooth was in front off to the side and not a critical one. If I had to pull it I think that I would have had enough left that I could have gotten a hold of it.
The two dings on my shins, the hole in my left and a small cut on my right, both closed up quickly. Then fast forward nine days later my wife looked down at my leg and said your wound is oozing. There was a large tear drip of clear white stuff coming out that was about 1 cc of liquid that was thick. I had been told that it was suppose to ooze because it was healing from the inside out. However, two days later I could barely walk, so it was another trip to the doctor. He said he did not think it was infected but he took a swab anyway and sent it to the lab. I asked him what I could have done different and he said nothing. He said the initial doctor was right in leaving the wound open. I asked him if I should have used something like Neosporin. He told me that some people will get an allergic reaction to the triple antibiotics on large wounds, small cuts are alright. Instead I should use only something like a Polysporin. He then sent me to a wound nurse.
The wound nurse is trained to deals with hard to heal wounds. There are some people, who have wounds that just will not heal, this happens to some diabetics. She put some Lidocaine in the wound to numb it. After a while it was nice and numb then she told me it would only be the outside. She was right, she stuck a swab inside to clean some stuff out. I do not use any anesthetic when I have my teeth drilled I can tell you that little swab truly hurt. She then used debridement solution called Vashe. It smelled like bleach and did in fact contain the same ingredients. Pour it on a piece of sterile gauze and place it on the wound. She left it on to soak the wound for about five minutes. She then used a product called Silvasorb Gel. It is a silver antimicrobial wound gel that is stronger than the other topical antibiotics. Wounds like to be kept moist and that is what the Silvasorb will do as it heals. She then covered the wound with a gauze pad and 3M mircopore tape, paper tape. The next day the pain had gone from a 10 to a 2, not bad.
Two days later the doctor called to tell me that there was the beginning of an infection in the wound. So I am on Penicillin for the next ten days. He said the Penicillin and the Silvasorb will be able to work together to get the wound healed. I had hoped it would have been completely healed up by Thanksgiving, it is not.
So it has now been over a month for this simple wound to heal. After I went to the wound nurse I changed the bandage once sometimes twice a day. However the first nine days had I had the Silvasorb Gel I would have been using it each day also. This also would have increased the amount of supplies that I would have used.
So what did I learn?
• BE AWARE of the small cuts they can become BIG problems.
• Neosporin is good for small cuts. My doctor told me that in some cases with deep cuts the patient may develop an allergy to the Neosporin
• Polysporin is better for deeper cuts
• Vashe is good for debridement and irrigation of the wound I am trying to find a source to purchase some to have in my first aid kits. I am also looking into making my own.
• Silvasorb is stronger than the over the counter topical ointments. It is pricy at $32 per three ounce tube. I will be getting at least a couple of tubes. The come in 1.5 oz, 3 oz and 8 oz. I would recommend a couple of 1.5 oz, mine lasted three weeks.
• I used thick 4x4 gauze pads to cover the wounds. These were about three times thicker than the old thin type that I had, much better. Just for this small wound I have gone through 24 at this time. So buy thick if you can or the thin ones but also buy a lot. This was just a small wound but it took a lot of my supplies that in a TEOTWAWKI situation I may not be able to replace. If it had been a major wound it surly would have depleted a major chunk of my stocks. I will have a minimum of 100 in my supplies.
• I used 3M Micropore tape to hold the gauze in place. This is the paper tape. It worked great at keeping on my bandages. I think that in this situation, adhesive tape that I would have normally used, would not have worked as well.
On a side note approximately 10 years ago I severely burned my hand. The amount of wound dressing that I went through was amazing. It was for that reason I stocked up on a bunch. But that was large bulky dressings like Kling and Kerlex. This was a small wound; I can only imagine what it would take to deal with a gunshot wound. So it is for this reason that I am severely re-evaluating my first aid stocks. I generally have a large amount first aid supplies on hand at the house. I highly recommend that you consider the same. I am currently scheduled to take a gunshot wound care class next month so I will do a brief when I am done.
If you by chance have more information on wound care I would appreciate hearing from you. These are the things that we will have to deal with in a SHTF situation. It would be nice to be better prepared…