questions about wound dressings - advice needed!

As I've posted elsewhere, DH had a cancer cut out of his face/ear yesterday, and a full thickness graft taken from his neck to put in the wound.

he came home yesterday with a padded waterproof dressing on the neck wound, and a dressing sewn into his ear (according to the nurse) and another large soft dressing over his ear. i kept an eye on it yesterday and though there was some bleeding on the neck wound, it wasn't bad

this morning he woke and when he sat up, he had an amount of blood leak from the neck wound, so we had to go off to the ED to get it redressed. there was no active bleeding, so they weren't concerned, just redressed both his ear and neck to make sure it was all ok

tonight, there are signs of leakage on his neck again - but the padding they put over the wound this morning doesn't appear to have any blood in it - i didn't notice that there was any blood on his neck when we came home, but i'm not sure. when i was looking, i noticed that, already, the edge of the waterproof cover has lifted where the blood is.

the last thing we want obviously is to have him get an infection in either site, so i guess i'm wondering whether we need to traipse back to the ED again and get it checked. he said he has minimal pain, and given the pad doesn't seem to have any blood in it, he isn't concerned. but i'm not sure what to do about the fact the waterproof dressing doesn't actually seem to have a seal at the moment.

they gave me some paper-ish type dressing cover that i was told to cut and use to tape down the edges of the dressing over his ear if it lifts - so i have put a bit of that along the site now to stop it further lifting - but if it's not water proof any more, do we need to get it looked at? obviously we'll know for sure if there is new blood now as that tape is white, so i guess that's one thing, but i'm more worried about the waterproofing thing

they nurse this morning said it the dressing over his ear was just there to stop anything else sticking to the dressing sewn into his ear (it's all a bit hard to explain) - there are now signs that blood has leaked out onto the outer tape there too so i'm hoping it doesn't stick. his gp is supposed to change the dressings in a week, but they have to stay on for a fortnight - so i'm hoping nothing goes wrong


i know i have anxiety issues and this not knowing what to do thing is making them worse - so i'm asking anyone with a bit of knowledge about wound care to give me some advice here!

Mmm bit hard to know without looking at the dressing.


Very general rule of thumb:

If stitches are under the dressing it's ok to leave it for a little while

If open wound under the dressing, it needs to be re-dressed.

That may or may not apply depending on circumstances.

I would probably ring his Dr & ask. Or even ring the hospital, as some dressings are different than others.

Hi BG.

The dressing shouldn't be leaking otherwise why have it? Being that i can't see it myself I advise you do get it properly dressed. You can go to your pharmacy and get some dressings there. Maybe a thick pad like combine with what is called hyperfix ontop which is an adhesive tape to go over the whole site.
Having said that- its best to get it redressed and ask the.nurse/doctor to write down the products they are using so you can buy some (hopefully they Will just give you a couple). Also ask that they show you how to redo it if needed.
Your not being overly anxious. They should have showed you this stuff luv. Your doing well :)

Hope he heals up fast :)

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Sorry but without seeing it is say go back and have it redressed and ask them what they would like you to do if it keeps happening. I agree ED will probably just give you a few new dressings. But a dressing that's played with too much will invite I infection. Best get a professional to take a look.

I would go to a pharmacy and ask if they can give you the same/similar type of dressing to replace the neck one, otherwise reinforce the edge of it with the tape - doesn't matter if it's not 100% waterproof so long as he keeps it dry.

If there's a sutured down dressing on the ear that will keep the graft covered and clean. The outer layers sound like they're mostly cosmetic if you know what I mean. The sutured down dressings on the grafts can look very crusty and ugly.

Of course if you're really worried there's never any harm in getting it checked.

Took a photo and sent it to the fabulous Feeb. She suggested ED. So I called them to see if it was a bust Friday night where is need to get mum to watch kidlets. Very quiet come on in! Packed up DH, DD and 12yo niece, and took them to ED. The dressings were replaced and checked by doctor. No signs of infection. Dressings on again. Spare dressings sent home but told to come back if I'm not happy changing them. I'm really not keen on changing things myself. Infection risk is just too high. I wasn't happy with how things went. The dressings are changed but even before we left one had started to lift. I came home and added tape to try and help keep the neck wound sealed. He has a pressure bandage around his head at the moment. Looks like he has had a fight or something lol

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Took a photo and sent it to the fabulous Feeb. She suggested ED. So I called them to see if it was a bust Friday night where is need to get mum to watch kidlets. Very quiet come on in! Packed up DH, DD and 12yo niece, and took them to ED. The dressings were replaced and checked by doctor. No signs of infection. Dressings on again. Spare dressings sent home but told to come back if I'm not happy changing them. I'm really not keen on changing things myself. Infection risk is just too high. I wasn't happy with how things went. The dressings are changed but even before we left one had started to lift. I came home and added tape to try and help keep the neck wound sealed. He has a pressure bandage around his head at the moment. Looks like he has had a fight or something lol

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Glad I could help hun and glad you took him and got dressings checked out. Hugs hope you can sleep easy (easier) tonight now. xoxox

after the hospital trip on friday night, they put a different type of dressing on his wound. i told them it didn't look like what the specialist had put on - he had a dressing that breathed, not a plastic one. the nurse on ED said it was what the doc had recommended. i wasn't happy but trusted them (as you do) - i should have trusted my gut. he got an infection, probably from the dressing trapping moisture in near the graft. the specialist isn't happy with how the graft looks

i just want to cry

Sorry to hear your DH's graft is not healing well. :-(

Please don't beat yourself up too much - infections can happen even when everything goes right and there are no issues with dressings etc. You've done all the right things by getting the best advice you could.