Problems with surgical wound healing

[Guest Julia59]

Hi---I'm not in very good spirits. I guess i'm just plain sick of things going wrong.

Mostly---it's my POTS issues--------the good old hyper adrengic----everything is too over stimulating issues. I feel like climbing the walls. I have not been the same since the lidocaine injections to numb the area in my chest for the small incision for the loop recorder.............................

The left side of my wound has opened---and there is a deep hole about the size of a small nail head. The hole is leaking a clear/yellowish fluid. The wound doesn't want to close on that side. I have to push up on my left breast and down on the upper chest to hold it together. I will not deal with more lidocaine injections to close that wound! There must be another way. Another round of that and I can guarantee i'll end up in the looney bin.

Now I know for sure that I can't handle it. I often wondered, because my POTS crash soon followed that tooth extraction back in Dec. 2000. I was already having problems, but the dental procedure was the trigger-----(the lidocaine was the GUN). I feel much the same as I did then---only a little more muffled due to wellbutrin that kind of helps ----A LITTLE BIT. I say a little bit because I have not had this much of a challange since my first crash.

I have always had all the other fun issues---but the hyper adrengic stuff has been under fairly good control until I had this latest small surgical procedure. When I had my neck surgery----I did not have this problem. I only had a rough time the day of surgery, and only part of the next day. I had tachycardia of 130 coming out of the anesthesia----and it hovered around 110-120 for a good 18 hours. Then I puked---------------and my HR went down to the 90s---and back to normal by the end of the next day.

This tiny surgical procedure I had just two weeks ago has created quite a mess of my POTS---------------I pray I don't follow the same trend from 2000-----I don't think I can make it through that again. I can take the pain, fatigue-------all the rest of the symptoms. What I can't take is the hyper adrengic junk-----------------I messes with the mind too much. That and my ADD does not MIX -------

I was wondering if any of you thought the EDS might cause my wound to pop open like that on the left side. Dr. Grubb stiched and glued it to prevent that from happening.

Thanks for letting me vent.............

Julie :0)

[Ernie]

Hi Julia,

I am sorry you are having a bad reaction to the surgery.

I don't know about the EDS issue but if your wound is leaking yellow you might be having some kind of infection.

If you feel the same way (hyperadrenergic) you did in 2000 could you take the medication that helped you at that time? I can't remember the name of it but I remember you mentioned it previously in another post.

Ernie

[MightyMouse]

Julia, that sounds more like an infection draining pus, so you need to get that checked tomorrow by your doc.

As far as eds healing issues are concerned, it has more to do with the wounds scarring excessively, and the scars are often wider than you'd expect. For example, my mothers c-section scar is about an inch wide, and has all sorts of redundant skin around it. Some folks describe the scars as looking like a fish mouth, as the skin around the outer area looks like a rim, and the center is rather wide. From what you described, that doesn't sound like what's happening.

Additionally, if there is infection, the wound will naturally try to drain... not saying it's impossible that it's an EDS issue, but either way, get it checked.

Nina

[stellakitty]

Hi Julia,

EEWWW!!!...My daughter is going through this as you type, yuck-O!!! She has a good 6 inch surgical wound that has opened on both ends, like deep round pockets, they are oozing "green goo", double yuck! I took her to the dr. on Tuesday, he said he could not restitch these as the skin is "dead" and they will just have to reheal from the "inside out". He did prescribe an antibiotic for this, but her last dose is tomorrow...now the wound is starting to split in the middle, with the same type "deep, round nail holes". This wound is now 3 weeks old, in my "not-so-medical -opinion" should be done and healed. She was stitched with from the "inside-out" with the dissolve stitches, not glued at all as I have read, she should have been...She too, has EDS. I will also go forth to add...she had a very serious animal bite when she was 10/11 that required 9 stitches, that thing took four months to heal.

Caution...Be careful with what you wish, one could certainly end up in the "LOONEY BIN". Been there, done that, ha.

Angie

[Guest Julia59]

Thanks a lot for the replies.----------------------------

Nina----I did have my wound checked this morning. The RN who works with the cardiac clinic checked me out. (very nice guy ) He tests all the pace makers/down loads---and now checks all the cardiac loop recorders with the computer. He can see what my heart did all week long........................ He also is the attending RN during the tilt table testing.

He didn't seem overly concerned with the wound. He said he has seen worse, but at the same time he is being careful and made an appointment for next week also. He put steri-strips on it to try and get it to close up. I have been very careful to keep it clean with antibacterial soap. However, at this point I can not get it wet until it closes. Because I HAVE kept it so clean is probably the reason it's not seriously infected. It is draining, but it's not puss, so if it's infected, it's to a milder degree. It's clear yellowish-----and i'm sure if I didn't take care of it they way I have---It would definately be infected.

I have a wound on my leg from a mole removal. The scar is wide and ugly---about the size of a nickle-----and the mole was tiny. The bleeding during the romoval was heavy then also. I had trouble with that wound closing. Finally it healed on it's own, but left a wide scar. I have no other surgical scars other then the one on my neck from neck surgery. The same thing happened there----the one end opened partially and got slightly infected. By the time I went to have it checked out---it closed up-----------

My POTS is definately taking a turn for the worse. My blood pressure is all over the place. Last week at the first wound check it was 80/60----then Wednesday is was 138/98-------and back down to 98/80 today.

Ernie, I was prescribed Ativan (not by Dr. Grubbs office) in the beginning when I was very hyper adrengic. This was before I was actually diagnosed with POTS. It helped short term, but actually made my ANS dysfunction WORSE in the long run. I was warned this could happen at my last appointment---so we are avoiding them right now. We are going to just try to increase the Wellbutrin dose a bit to see if it helps. If that doesn't work---she wanted to try cymbalta. I'm not so sure about that one as it's a newer drug, and i'm always leary about newer drugs.

I feeling a bit better hyper adrengic wise this morning----but i'm usually always good in the morning. It's the night time that is rough for me. I'm thinking it could be my body telling me I need more adrenaline because of the increased fatigue and pain from my spinal issues. It's seems to happen more when I exert myself. Exertion for me is just going on a short shopping trip---or running a couple of errands----making dinner---ect. Doesn't take much to wipe me out lately---

I was told by more then one person that lidocaine can be rough on some ANS dysfunction patients. I was talking to my friend at lunch yesterday, and she had to call 911 from the dentists office--------her system got really messed up----severely. I guess I was lucky it wasn't worse..........

Julie :0)