graft donor site - questions

not sure anyone will know the answer, but i really really REALLY don't want to go to emergency again over this so i'll ask here, i'll google a bit, and call nurse on call if i need to

DH had a graft taken from is upper leg on Thursday. By thursday night, the dressing over it had started to leak - so we'd been home a few hours at best. off to emergency, as the "waterproof" dressing obviously wasn't waterproof any more if liquid was coming out. we knew that the surgeon didn't want the dressing removed for a week due to infection risk, so the nurse added absorbent dressings over the top, and reapplied the pressure bandage over the lot. the pressure bandage was recommended for 24 hours post op, but given the level of bleeding, DH thought it best to leave it longer - so it has only been removed today

i took the additional dressing off the wound as advised by the nurse to check on bleeding and re-dress if necessary. on Thursday night there had been a small amount of leakage - the dressing had lifted about a section about a cm wide - now it's opened almost the full width at the base of the dressing - so about 10cm - and is slowly leaking all the blood from the dressing. i don't think it's BAD to have the blood leak away rather than all sit there - so i'm not panicked - have redressed the wound with Melolin dressing, and the pressure bandage - but i'm wondering if it's worth making an appointment on monday to try and get it looked at instead of waiting til Thursday. DH is happy to be sponge bathed (cheeky bugger lol) in the interim, but i know he'd like to bathe properly well before the follow up on thursday. he's had FOUR WEEKS in which he's only been able to have hip bath/sponge bath and three showers immediately before the district nurse showed up for dressing changes... he is still yellow from the iodine wash, and really wants a proper clean up...

so my questions - is it unusual to still be bleeding 55hours post graft donation?
would you continue with a light pressure bandage over the wound (his thigh is currently wrapped)
and
would you make the appointment on Monday to get it looked at? i've taken a pic of the previous blood loss for them so they can see what was going on up to today - they said the dressing should come off on it's own after 7 to 10 days, but we're only just over two days into that week to ten day stint and at least a quarter of the edging has lifted.


i'm not worried about infection this time round - DH is on two lots of antibiotics - i'm mostly just wondering what to do about this dressing.

all suggestions/thoughts welcome!

I would go get it checked Monday xoxo


Cat xox

If it was me and I had some supplies to add to the dressing or replace it I would wait until Thursday unless it started to smell or other signs of infection. Did they do a split skin graft? If so it is pretty normal to ooze a fair bit, you should probably ring the ward or clinic to ask for advice over the phone rather than going in to ED in the first instance.

i've been redressing it myself, and there are no signs of infection, and google confirmed the oozing is normal - i'm more worried about the fact that we're having to add a large amount of padding and keep the pressure bandage on to hold it all in place, when they said we shouldn't need that after 24 hours. and the fact he can't bathe at all because it is far from waterproof now.

i'm lucky in that the dressing they are using is the same one mum was buying when she had her leg ulcer (14 months worth of treatment) so she had stocked up on the main dressing. i'll run out of tape stuff soon, so will have to stock up - but it's very versatile - and think i'll pop into the pharmacy to see if i can get either a bigger Melolin so we only need one layer instead of melolin plus combine pad, or will have to get another few combine pads.

i'm pretty sure they've done a split skin graft this time - the first one was a full thickness graft from his neck, which had stitches - this one is from his thigh, and i can't see any stitches through the clear dressing. the nurse on the day surg unit SAID it was all the same when i asked what type of graft it was - that it was a full thickness graft, but i honestly don't think it is. i think it's a split skin one with a bit of mesh over the donor site. but there is still a lot of blood inside the dressing and i'm not poking and prodding to get it to move so i can see if there is mesh or stitches there lol

Sorry have been offline. It sounds like a split thickness graft... How is he going now? (I used to work in burns and most of the donor sites ended up with big padding to contain the ooze, padding is better than just waterproofing, they usually heal pretty nicely.

they replaced the waterproof dressing today and checked, said it looks fine. it looks like they actually took two "bits" so no idea what happened! it is still very raw looking, but i suspect that is normal after only a few days. GP and clinic nurses are upset at surgeon (we were told to go back there after a week for follow up, or if any dramas - and the surgeon has sent no report on treatment expectations at this stage). what we're doing is exactly what the nurse said to keep doing (leave waterproof dressing - which is leaking already! - add melolin padding and something extra over that, then wrap with a pressure bandage to keep it in place) - unfortunately, the pressure bandage just won't stay in place because of the changes to shape of upper leg - and the clinic didn't have any tubigrip or similar to fit him (he is over six foot and built like the proverbial outhouse)