Anyone had a wound vac?? **May be graphic to some

I had a thigh lift (and brachioplasty) on May 23. My incision opened up at an intersection on my right groin/upper thigh. I have been going to a  wound care specialist . My incision had many areas that were deep and not healing well. Yesterday  my doctor opened up my dime size incision to around 6x that size. She removed lots of internal scar type tissue. On Monday I am to have a wound vac placed. Does anyone have any experience with these? I am wondering how I will carry it around in a semi consealed way. I doubt I am going to be able to work as I now need to visit the wound care clinic 3 days a week and be attached to a machine 22 hours a day.  I do have some STD and FMLA left.  SAdly I don't know if I'm more distraught over this wound or my 2012 surgeries having to be put off because I'm going to use all my FMLA. Boy am I sick or what? lol (Gotta laugh or I'll cry.)
Thanks for any advise/ information about the wound vac.  

I have experience with wound vacs from the perspective of being an RN.  they are amazing!!!  Help to heal super fast and clean.  I think they are under utilized.  Good luck.

Hi - I had the same surgery as you mid June and had complications in my right uppper thigh too.  I popped some stitches which caused my incision to open quite deep at the T section on my groin, as well as I had a large hematoma in my right thigh which had to be manually drained.  Thankfully its healed up now, but did take a long time.

I don't have experience of the wound vac, but just wanted to post and wish you a good recovery.  I guess now that they have removed the deep scar tissue that should help.  I know when I had the hematoma drained it made it look 10 x worse and it felt like I was going backwards in my recovery, but now it seems to be healing well although I am still bruised.

Good Luck
Debbie

I had a wound vac for over 6 weeks earlier this year due to complications from my panniculectomy. I had two very large wounds around my waistline and had to have more surgery to close these back up. When I woke up, I had a wound vac for both areas and carried a portable vac around for the 6 weeks. The bottom line: the dressing changes requred a nurse stop by my home 3 days a week to change the dressings, and the machine could be a little difficult at times if there was a bad seal, but I was told without it, I would still be stuffing gauze into my wounds 3 times a day almost 7 months after my surgery. The vac works very well and closed my wounds up almost completely...and it prevented any infection from developing. I had to have some more outpatient surgery to completely close them, but the vac did it's job. It' well worth the pain of living with it 24/7. My nurses were in awe of it and they deal with some very bad wounds on a daily basis.

Good Luck to you...please let me know if you have any questions!

Chris