[hillarymcarter]

My husband is in the same boat with a sore on his bottom. It has been there since last January. He always resisted bed rest and at first I agreed. It is a catch 22....if he stays in bed, he loses strength and gets down...if he gets up he is happy but has a bad sore.
I finally convinced him to give it a month in bed and the dimensions have changed from 8centimeters x 5 centimeters to 4 centimeters x 1.5 centimeters. It is crazy how much it has helped.
We also had an artificial skin graft done. They use the skin from a baby's circumsized penis. The skin has growth hormones in it which help the wound heal. There is no surgery necessary...they just clean up the wound bed, put the graft on with strips, and put a compression dressing over it.
He gets up about once or twice a week but never for more than 3 hours at a time. I put a tegaderm (preop) over the dressing and I don't change it unless I notice that there is significant leakage.
If you have any questions or need some support let me know....wounds can be scary things.

[wheelie182]

Quote

They use the skin from a baby's circumsized penis

what, so Bruce has the skin of a Babys penis on his bottom, mmmmmm medical science gets weirder and weirder, i always thought they got the skin from somewhere else on the patients own body

[Bob Clark]

Hi Hillary,

I've heard about guys getting their circumcision reversed (duh) but that's ridiculous! Does Bruce get aroused if you tickle it?

Maybe some kid across the country is getting a little boner whenever Bruces washes his butt!

But seriously....

Hi Sheila,

He has to stay off his butt. There is no other way but to keep the pressure off it and allow the blood to flow to it unhindered. If he refuses to he will no doubt be in the hospital for a few or more months if he doesn't die from an infection outright. He better wise up soon... he only has one butt and he'll need it for sitting on for a long time. He'll be paying the price for his negligence his whole life if it gets out of hand now. Maybe direct him to this forum and some of us can talk to him about it. Before it's too late.

You're being a good daughter, step or otherwise. I wish you the best.

PS. Have you talked to any of his doctors about putting him on some anti-depressants?

[Simon]

He should definitely be off it from day one. It won't heal any other way plus you need to ask why it happened at all, if he's a para as you say he can relieve the pressure every hour when he's sat by lifting himself off the cushion for a minute.
Now he's there with the sore, get him in bed and buy some manuka honey, should be available in pharmacies or drug stores, I assume your american? Put it on the sore, it will debride it, then heal it to. Ideally it should be covered with opsite or tegaderm (if you have these over the pond).
It will heal with this faster than ANY product made by drug companies.
Also, what cushion is he on?
Why, if he's a para are you caring for him, he should be self managing....?
If he is depressed, he needs counselling and/or medication.
Hope this helps.
Simon

[hillarymcarter]

I told Bruce he is like Michael Jackson with the baby penis on his butt! You can also get a synthetic made from pig skin...I believe this is called an Oasis graft. I told Bruce if he got that one he better watch it b/c the dogs may snack on his booty while he's sleeping!

[ASHLEYTHOMPSON]

My husband had 2 stage 4 ulcers on his butt, one on each side. After battling them for almost 2 years, we opted for flap surgery. It meant complete bedrest, absolutley no sitting up, not even for a second, for a total of 7 weeks.
It was certainly a journey that neither one of us wish to repeat. I cant say that its made him better about pressure relief, i still have to remind him. Then i have to listen to "dont tell me what to do".
I dont think that he'll ever realize how much of an effect those wounds had on our entire family. I do remind him of this occasionally. BTW, the right measured 4cm in diameter by 4 cm in depth with 8 cm of tunnelling at 12 o'clock, There was a good bit of bone exposed which cause osteomyelitis. The left was a little smaller from the outside but had similar depth and tunneling. Hope you can convince him to nip this wound in the bud before it becomes life threatening. John became very anemic, his red blood cells took on a tear drop shape as well.
THere's also a risk of long term chronic decubitus becoming malignant. Marjolin's tumor. Just encourage him and remind that you love him. Hopefully he'll become determined to fight these things, because they can be healed eventually.

[hillarymcarter]

Ashley, I would like to add....and I'm sure you'll agree b/c we've talked about it....flap surgery should be the last option. It is really a very major surgery. My husband also had the surgery but unfortunately the doctor left a surgical sponge in him so the surgery failed.
It is a tough time though. Bruce got so depressed from being stuck in bed for that long. After the surgery, you can not even sit up in bed to eat. At least on bed rest you can get up for a couple hours a week.
The surgery can work miracles though...but I would save it for last resort...it's for the REALLY bad ones. Bruce also had his poor little bone sticking out. He had to have a double flap for one wound. I don't even want to venture what the measurements were but the dr. said it was one of the worst he's seen. They also shave down the butt bone while they are in there so it won't be so sharp on the skin.