Diabetic Wound Care After Surgery: My Personal Experience and a How to Guide

When my Mom had major surgery on April 8^th 2008, we knew some complications could occur but weren't prepared when they did happen. She went into surgery to have a volley ball size mass removed from her ovary and also had a complete hysterically at 47 years old. My Mom is also diabetic so there was some concern there but this surgery had to be done as the mass kept growing and was painful.

When someone has a mass on their ovary and has surgery, doctors usually go in vaginally if the mass is small. My Mom did not have that option because the mass was so large. Her doctor originally thought it was cantaloupe sized but when it was removed it was much larger then that. She had to have a large cut on her stomach so the doctor could remove it. My Mother is a plus size woman so cutting into her meant going deeper and through fat cells. She went through her surgery OK and they let her come home five days after surgery. She had a long angry looking stapled wound on her stomach that started looking discolored a couple of days after being home.

My Mom went to the doctor a week later and they removed the staples. Stuff started oozing out and the wound opened up on her stomach. This really scared her and the entire family. We had never heard of this happening before. The doctor told us that this is actually common. That did NOT make us feel better but at least we knew it wasn't this freak rare occurrence. The wound was about the length of your index finger length wise. The doctor put padding in the wound and said it had to be changed once a day. He said that he'd try to get a home nurse to come out but in the meantime it'd have to be changed by family members.

My Mom was having a hard time keeping calm during the changing of her wound and I don't blame her. If I had a large creepy looking hole in my stomach, I'd be freaking out too. The first time I saw the open wound, I felt hot and had to sit down. I didn't show my distress though because I didn't want my Mom to be upset further. But seeing that open wound on my Mom got to me, it really did. As time went on, I got slightly more used to it. Cleaning it was something that had to be done and I was determined to act normally and do the job right.