Did you have to pack a wound?

I have been faithfully packing my one incision site for 2 months and still not healed. I am running out of patience. If you had to pack a wound, how long did it take?

My husband had one that I packed for three months.  Are you just packing or are you irrigating and then packing the wound? Everyday I would remove the packing and then flush out the wound with sterile sal****er in a syringe.  

If the wound is not noticeably smaller and producing less drainage after two months, then you need to have it looked at.

Each time you clean and pack your wound it should be a little smaller until it closes up completely.

I never packed it, I just was instructed to cover it with a gauze pad and tape. It took maybe two months total for it to "seal" completely shut.

I have been packing my DIL's c-section incision daily for coming up for six weeks.  I'm thinking at least another 2 weeks to go.  

It depends on high deep and long the wound was in the beginning. My mom had a very large & deep abdominal wound from surgery that was intentionally not closed (due to high risk of it reopening). I was her primary caretaker and it took 4 months to heal. Diabetes can slow down the healing process. 

If your wound is not draining, is not red around the opening, and is getting smaller, continue to pack it as ordered. (Make sure you're not forcing your wound open to accommodate the packing. Decrease the amount of packing as the wound gets smaller.)

Donna (retired NICU RN)

I had to have my lapband out because it eroded into my stomach.  I ended up with three infections, two of which were in two of the incisions.  My husband had to clean and pack them twice a day.  I noticed if it wasn't packed enough the packing would rub on the raw meat and cause a lot of pain, so we made sure we packed it very tight.  We had to do this for 2 months and then we realized that the flesh didn't match up so the doc had to cut the incision sideways and we had to pack that so that flesh would meat flesh so it could heal all the way, in total it took 3 months.  Not fun at all!  I am so sorry you have to go through this, I wouldn't wi**** on my worst enemy.

I had to move back home after the birth of my first child so my mom could pack my c-section incision 4 times a day.  Seems like it took a long time to heal but that was 35 years ago.  I agree that it is not something you would wish on your worst enemy.  I am sorry you are dealing with this as well as getting in your protein and water.  Hopefully it will all be a distant memory for you soon.