[knj777]

My boyfriend may be having plastic (flap) surgery due to a pressure sore in the coccyx area. (left of his tailbone). He's told he may have to stay in the hospital for 6 weeks solid. He also heard maybe a 3 week stay then 3 weeks at home.
First off, his pressure sore is 3.5cm deep. He is on a wound vac now. The wound vac has helped alot but his docter is suggesting this surgery.

My question is if any of you have went through this? Do you have any advice or thoughts on this?

I want him to be at home if he can for the last 3 weeks if the docter allows it. He will have to be on solid best rest. Does anyone have any suggestions for helping make this time easier for him? Any ideas or activities or something...anything...to make this time for him go faster.

Thanks in advance!
Nancy

[Brokeback Brenda]

I had flap surgery a few yrs ago in the same area. I was in the hospital for 3 wks, 2 of those flat on my back on a clinitron bed, after that I went to a low loss air mattress and after 2 1/2 wks I could sit in my chair for 15 min and up it 5 min a day til I got to 3 hrs, total for the day, then had to wait for my postop appt to get cleared for more. Then it was just using common sense and listening to my body to determine how much/often I would sit. My advice would be to eat healthy, lots of protein and water for muscle healing and don't rush the healing process--ease back into the chair. I was on bed rest for 5 mo (most of it before surgery) and did whatever I could to pass the time--tv, playing games w/ people, enjoying what company came, reading, sleeping, coloring-yes coloring lol

[knj777]

Hi there Bokeback Brenda, thanks for your reply. We appreciate it. He's going into the doctor next week to see what he says about the surgery. If he only has to stay in for 3 weeks, that's better than six weeks. We read your reply together. We will ease him slowly back into the chair and not expect things to happen real fast.

Have a merry christmas!!
Nancy and Jay

[Vegasmaster]

 knj777, on Dec 23 2009, 09:22 PM, said:

My boyfriend may be having plastic (flap) surgery due to a pressure sore in the coccyx area. (left of his tailbone). He's told he may have to stay in the hospital for 6 weeks solid. He also heard maybe a 3 week stay then 3 weeks at home.
First off, his pressure sore is 3.5cm deep. He is on a wound vac now. The wound vac has helped alot but his docter is suggesting this surgery.

My question is if any of you have went through this? Do you have any advice or thoughts on this?

I want him to be at home if he can for the last 3 weeks if the docter allows it. He will have to be on solid best rest. Does anyone have any suggestions for helping make this time easier for him? Any ideas or activities or something...anything...to make this time for him go faster.

Thanks in advance!
Nancy

hello Nancy. I can relate to your boyfriends upcoming problem. I had my flap surgery on September 19, 2007. This would be the 10th operation I have had in that region. Mine were due to a recurring pilonidal cyst. In my case it was designed to remove all the scar tissue from the previous nine surgeries. My doctors at the VA were pretty sure that I had a 50-50 chance. 50% for getting better, and 50% no change at all. Well, after that surgery my nightmare began. After waiting about two months to have the stitches removed, and there were 60 of them, it was too tender to put any kind of pressure on it. Now over two years later, all of my doctors have agreed that the surgery failed and put me into more pain than I have ever been. I now take 180 mg of morphine SR a day, and oxycodone for breakthrough pain. Originally I was on opiates due to my spinal and my neuropathy. That has now changed, and I had on opiates for over seven years. For me, sitting or should I say not sitting, has become my major medical concern. The VA is now looking into finding a doctor who will put in an interthecal pain pump. I hope your boyfriends surgery goes, way better than mine. So my advice is, unfortunately, prepare for the worst and pray for the best. Doughnuts usually will not work to sit on due to the size of the surgery area. In my case from the coccyx to the beltline the separation between my cheeks has been removed. The upper part of the surgical area, if pressured, has sent electrical type of neuropathic pain. The lower area, basically where the curve is, has a pain that I can only describe as a railroad Spike being hammered in by a 12 pound sledgehammer. the best remedy to reduce the pain for me was purchasing the select comfort/sleep number bed. Finding the right number is key to reducing the pain a little bit. I found it lying on the couch is painful, because the couch cushions, the vertical ones, puts pressure on the upper part of the surgical site, thereby causing the neuropathic pain. I have a lift chair that I can use because of the weakness of my legs. It will recline far enough back that I am almost in a horizontal position. I can only tolerate this painful position time wise to watch the evening news. Then I have to get up. This causes another problem, releasing the pressure in the surgical area. For a brief time, depending on how long I was sitting, the pain will increase almost infinitely for about a minute. Then it will subside. I would suggest that you look into a nice office chair. I found an office chair that I sit in to do things like writing this message. There are so many styles that you might find one that seems to conform to how your gluteus maximus is shaped. I found one for about $200, that I am sitting in at this time. Obviously you do not know how long I was sitting, but I did just enough to write about half this message, took a break lying down, and then finished it or at least to where I am now. I take this chair with me when I go see my parents, because their chairs are too uncomfortable for me. by the way I see you did not mention driving. Depending on your vehicle, you may be able to drive painlessly a few minutes to maybe even a half-hour. So your trips need to be planned in advance so you are assured to have a place to break. Know what I have given you is the worst-case scenario, because that's what happened to me. And my doctors all agree that there is nothing else that could be done except for pain management. I pray that your boyfriend has a better recovery and outcome than I had. If I read your message correctly, that surgery has just happened and you are in the recovery stage. Feel free to ask me any questions that may be related to your boyfriend and me. I would be more than happy to share advice and get advice with your boyfriend. I believe it would be hugely beneficial to the both of us, because as I pray his outcome will be better. It would give me a chance to see how another person who has had the same surgery gets along when things go right. I hope this helps. My intention is not to scare you with all the worst-case scenario things, but I also believe that you need information going both ways. I just wish in my case, that I was telling you all the good news of the surgery. It is now the only thing preventing me from working. about 99% of the jobs in this country require you to sit for a length of time. I can only sit for a few minutes before either going to bed, or taking my breakthrough pain medication. That is my life. I pray yours goes better.

with blessings and respects,
Jeff

[airart1]

i had the VA do mine the last time. which was actually my 4th surgery, and it was just all my fault 14 hour work days......but the VA will keep u 8 weeks on a sand bed and 4 weeks on a air bed before they will let u up for 15 mnutes a day.......this was at the spinal cord center in memphis, and it is manditory, period.....i would say if he starts getting up like your saying, his flap surgery will never work, i been thru alot, and it needs at least 2 months after he comes home before he spends any time on it and maybe up to a year before it is totally back to somewhat normal, and u can take off 20% of up time off of your living, for every surgery he ends up getting, don't get me wrong, first surgery, good plastic surgeon that actually knows what there doing is the major trick, if he gives it time to heal, he should be ok, but 3 weeks i believe is a pipe dream, think about a year before its all over...............just my experience...

[knj777]

Wow, Thanks y'all for the information. We just got an update as of yesterday. His plastic surgeon decided to take him off his wound vac and see if it will heal up on it's own. If it gets worse, then they will do the flap surgery. Vegamaster, I have to tell you I suffered from pilonidal cysts myself about 15 years ago. Those are a B*&ch!! Man did they hurt. I had the surgery on my tailbone to remove that tissue and I havent had them since. Sounds like you had a long and gruelling recovery. I'm sorry to hear that.
Thanks to all of you for your advise.

[airart1]

not really this one with the VA went well just took some time........they got there u know what together at the spinal cord hospital.just time......if he takes the vac off, he'll have to stay totally off it or it will never heal............no pressure is the trick.....

[qbounce]

I agree about the vac. From what I've read with others experiences, the vac worked miracles, but only when done properly.

If my wound care doc put me on a vac, maybe I would never have had the flap surgery. Who knows??

My experience was similar to airart1's. 5 weeks on my back in the Clinitron bed, where sand is used to stimulate the skin. Then I was moved to an air matress and allowed to wheel around on my stomache on a flat bed gurney to get some excercise for one week. And finally, the last 2 weeks I was put on a chair sitting program until I was allowed to sit in my chair for 3 hours on the day of discharge. During the sitting program, I was also able to work out in their gym with a trainer to help gather back my strength.

Some hospitals have recreational therapists who can supply TV sets with videos, card games, paints and even board games to help pass the time.

Hopefully it won't come to that, though. I tried healing my wound with no success for over a year before getting my coccyx flapped over.

It's been healed for 3 years now, and I'm still able to do everything I ever could before. Just keep in mind that the skin has been forever compromised, and is about 30% weaker due to the scar tissue. Always be mindfull of your pressure releases.

This post has been edited by qbounce: 09 January 2010 - 11:08 PM

[airart1]

me too. but my private ins wouldnt pay for it, but would pay for 100 grand worth of surgery, before i got my VA medical started, actually didnt know i was elegible fr VA medical, sure would have saved me many a thousands of dollars for private ins for 12 yrs., they were raping me, 2 grand a month for private ins up till 1999...........had VA ever since and they take care of there spinal injuries........