Pacemaker Club: Partially open incision 2 weeks later

Partially open incision 2 weeks later

by sequoia5
2019-08-15 14:15:27
Surgery & Recovery
1002 views
2 comments

I got my first PM on July 30th. On Tuesday, the bottom of my incision started bleeding old brown blood. My EP sent me to the wound clinic, and I got the incision debrided and flushed with antibiotics. I go back next Tuesday. I have to change the dressing and repack the open hole at the bottom with collagen, so I took off the bandage today, and the top 3/4 of the incision looks great, but the bottom is still very open and deep and bleeding old blood still. Has anyone else experienced this? What was your healing time? I’m so frustrated and just want this healed.

2 Comments

go back

by Tracey_E - 2019-08-15 14:47:40

Go back, and insist that they be aggressive. You want cultures to be sure that you are on the correct antibiotics. It may be fine and this may be normal but if it's still open I would get pushy. You can't take any chances with infection. They can't risk infection getting to the heart via the lead so if it is infected, and not treated quickly and aggressively, they may end up having to take the whole thing out, then start again once it heals. Some practices don't deal with this often enough to understand how quickly it can get very serious.

I can relate

by lildanishgirl - 2019-08-16 10:16:14

I agree with Tracy.

I got my ICD on January 2, 2019 and part of my incision just wouldn't heal (after about 4 weeks of healing). It turned out that the knot from the "dissolvable" stitches was preventing the wound from closing. They put me on antibiotics (just in case) - did blood work to rule out infection - told me to keep it clean and covered for a week (to see if the wound would close on its own) - ended up booking me in day surgery (beginning of February) and had the knot cut out and re-stitched the open area. It then healed up completely about a week or two later.

I hope you can get it sorted out soon :) It was very frustrating at the beginning (I felt the same way as you) but now I'm 8 months in, and I usually forget I even have it! Phheeewww!