Advice about post-surgical dressing?

Factual Questions
1

Hi,

I know I’m skirting pretty close to the “no medical advice” rule and I hope someone will tell me if I’m out of line. I had minor surgery three days ago to re-excise a cancerous skin lesion and it’s left me with a roughly 3-inch line of stitches in the middle of my back. I’m staying with my parents right now but they’re out of town for a few days; I have an arrangement with a family friend who’s a nurse to change the dressing on the wound.

Unfortunately the dressing just (12:20 AM here) fell off. I’m very hesitant to wake up my friend. My instinct is to put a heavy layer of Vaseline on the wound, put on a clean T-shirt, and let it go that way until my regularly scheduled dressing change in the morning. Does anyone see a problem with this?

(This is not a matter of life and death, and calling my doctor would be very impractical. So I hope this thread will be allowed to stay. I’m taking sole responsibility for this decision, but a second opinion would be helpful.)

Thanks!

2

I would avoid Vaseline, as that could attract dirt and lint and such to stick to the wound. I’d just rinse it with mild soap and water for right now. If you have some clean gauze pads, put some over the incision. If not, put on the clean t-shirt and avoid sleeping on it if at all possible.

3

What happened to the “need help fast” tag? Of course CP’s bedtime is at dusk, which around here is about 18:30, so I wouldn’t have seen it anyway.

As a rule of thumb a 3-day old skin incision does just fine with minimal intervention of any kind. No lotions and potions unless your own doc says otherwise.
A clean dry gauze dressing is helpful to keep out filth and perhaps prevent pressure and rolling around from irritating the edges.

Since this is too late for you, I’m not counting it as advice.

4

Thanks for the replies. A layer of gauze would have been ideal but I couldn’t reach to put it on. I put on some Vaseline (although that apparently wasn’t necessary) using a Q-tip duct taped to a pen. Seems as if it worked out fine.

5

So from now on a Q-tip ducted taped to a pen is a HellsBreezeway Sterile Applicator.