Hmm.
I think I speak for everyone when I say: HOLY SHIT
I’m not going to follow that link to look at the pictures. I’m sure it’s unpleasant. However, as a professional, the nurse should not have said to anyone in the household how deep the wound was. I’m sure he was afraid and her remark didn’t help. If I were you, I’d call up the agency that sent her and yell at them.
Antigen,
I went through exactly this about 1 year ago [I’m 26]. I went to the doctor because I could no longer sit down. He took a look and it was about the closest I’ve ever seen a doctor come to saying “oh my god.” He asked me what I was doing this afternoon and if I had eaten breakfast. They did the procedure right there in the office and put me out for it.
My poor partner was the one who had to repack the wound. According to him what was worse than how it looked [I had him take a digital picture of it so I could see for myself – but not before I completely recovered] was that he just couldn’t handle putting me through the pain of repacking it.
My experience was that it hurt pretty constantly for the first couple of days, and after that only the changing would hurt. Still pretty bad, but after about 9-12 days the pain decreased dramatically, to the point where I was doing the changing myself.
It definitely sucks and not something I’m looking forward to going through again [which is now looking likely] but it will get significantly better.
Per Dewey Finn’s suggestions…I’d be more than will to be that patient if you think it would help your brother.
Just saw this. The best thing for me was the realization that I should time taking the pain killers with repacking the wound. Other than that I found the most comfortable position to be kneeling with my elbows/upper body resting on a chair in front of me. That’s how I spent most of my time in front of the computer.
It also probably goes without saying that the follow-up visits are not going to be fun but they’ll help tremendously with the healing and pain down the road.
One post, and you blow the entire “Zit stories” thread out of the water. Congratulations, dude.
I don’t want to look at the pictures, but I am curious about this. Is this located in the middle lower back just above the butt? If so, how can you reach back there to change the dressings yourself?
It gets better in the coarse of a week or two… Unless you forget to take your post-op antibiotics. The last thing your brother wants is for the wound to get infected.
My initial wound cleared up in about a week, the subsequest infection knock me on my… well not exactly my ass, anything but, for two weeks.
My father took me to the emergency room for the subsequent infection. They asked if I wanted pain medication. I said “Yes,” and then Dr. Frankenstein proceded to “push the infection out.” Did I mention that he started BEFORE the meds showed up? No? Did you know before they do something like that, they rinse the infected area with alchohol? Do you know where alchohol runs when you are lying on your stomach, and it is poured on your tailbone? That’s right.
Meanwhile, the guy in the bed next to me ws getting an IV of morphine for his kidney stones.
I hate that guy.
On the bright side, the meds (when they finally came) were good ones. Ooooh… colors.
The wound was actually a bit lower than that. WebMD has an illustration–much less graphic than an actual photograph–here. Click the link right after the first paragraph and look at the two illustrations on the right. After a bowel movement I had to wipe carefully so I wouldn’t accidentally bump the bandage. So actually reaching the site wasn’t a problem. I just used one had to “spread 'em,” and used the other to pack some gauze. The hardest part was trying to tape the whole thing up without using too much. Because by that point what hurt the most was pulling the tape off.
Incidentally Antigen, you might want to let your brother know that, although this was only my experience, actually going to the bathroom didn’t hurt at all. I remember being quite scared about having to go the first time and was very relieved when I finally couldn’t hold it in any longer.
Thanks so much to all of you for your advice and encouragement. Hearing things from people who have been through it is so much better than having clueless people try to cheer you up! My brother is doing better already. The wound isn’t quite as deep as we first thought, it was just that the surgeon had packed so much gauze in there at first that it pushed into the surrounding tissue.
And the nurse wasn’t evil, really. She said something like “Poor boy, that’s the deepest one I’ve seen yet! Let’s see how we can make this better…” Plus, she was pretty young and couldn’t possibly have seen very many yet anyways, or so I later convinced my brother. 
We discovered that sitting in the tub for a while before trying to unpack the wound helps a LOT. Wet gauze slides out much easier than dried crusty gauze.
Servo, thanks for the chair suggestion. He tried it and found it much easier than trying to sit on the edge of his butt. Oh, and the pooping part was ok. He was scared, but it was easier than he expected.
Good Lord! What causes these things? Because I don’t* ever* want to suffer through that!
StG
After reading this thread, I have officially found Something Besides Pleurisy That I Wouldn’t Wish On My Worst Enemy.