Common Questions About Your Wound Care Regimen

If you are keeping to your wound care and medication regimen and following your doctor’s instructions on how to clean a wound, you should notice that your wound is healing steadily. Four weeks after your surgery or debridement, the wound should be about 50% of the way healed. If your wound is not showing signs of improvement or if it is healing slower than expected, inform your doctor as soon as you can.

Many symptoms and conditions, such as poor blood circulation, caused by diabetes may cause a wound to heal slower than expected. Also, if you have diabetic neuropathy, you may not be able to feel sensations in your legs, feet, arms, and hands, which could in turn cause wounds to go unnoticed. When a wound isn't noticed and treated right away, it can get infected or turn into an ulcer, both of which will slow down the healing process.

Assess your limbs regularly to check for new cuts, wounds, and sores or to monitor the status of existing wounds, and make sure you follow your doctor’s wound care regimen precisely, even if it doesn’t seem necessary.

Even if you know how to clean an open wound and your wound doesn’t look infected, you should seek medical help if it isn’t healing as it should. There could be something else causing the healing to slow or it might be infected without you realizing it. If an infection is allowed to fester, you could be hospitalized and become seriously ill, or even be forced to amputate your limb.

Even if you know you are following your correct wound care and medication regimen, get to a wound care center if you notice anything unusual or concerning.

While all scrapes and cuts need to be kept clean and protected from dirt, there are certain types of wounds, particularly large and open wounds, that require special treatment from you and your doctor. Some of these include:

• Venous ulcers
• Arterial ulcers
• Pressure sores
• Surgical wounds
• Diabetic ulcers

If you have an open wound that you can’t explain, isn’t healing as you expect, looks infected, is deeper than ¼”, or has sides that don’t touch, you should always consult your doctor. With the proper treatment and wound care supplies, your wound has a much better chance of healing properly and avoiding an infection.

Chronic wounds are wounds that fail to heal even when you are correctly following your wound care regimen. These wounds remain open without progressing for months or even several years. Even with routine treatment, chronic wounds are not likely to improve.

Unfortunately, we don’t always know why wounds don’t heal, but there are several factors we’ve discovered that can cause a wound to be chronic:

• A lack of adequate blood flow to the wound
• Infection within a wound where it may be difficult to detect
• Poor nutrition
• Some underlying conditions, such as cancer or diabetes
• A history of radiation exposure, or
• Unrelieved pressure on the wound and surrounding area.

If you are suffering from a chronic wound, make sure you follow proper guidelines on how to clean an open wound and listen carefully to your doctor’s training. You’ll want to do everything you can to encourage healing and prevent infection.