My daughter recently had her appendix out, then incision became infected its been close to 1 month since surg.

Question

we went to the Doc. yesturday and he is now trying something called Silverton to pack the wound with. He said it should speed up the healing process. Why is it taking so long to heal?????

Answer 1

I think the product you are talking about is called Silveron, which is an excellent material to use with post-operative site infections to promote healing, treat the current infection and prevent others. The strips contain minute amounts of actual silver, which have a antimicrobial property. A doctor could also be using Silvadine cream with packing material to do the same thing. With either product, you get healing going again and eliminate infection. The wound is going to heal from the inside outwards. Normally this is what happens, except the stitches hold the skin closed and you just don't see it happen. In your daughter's case, the site got infected and the stitches had to be removed- so the skin has an opening. Because it was infected, the doctor won't want to replace the stitches, but he also doesn't want to just leave the open wound unprotected. That's the reason for the packing, to provide the protection her skin would have normally provided while the tissue beneath heals.
It's hard to give an exact time frame for her to completely heal, because that is a pretty individual thing. In a child, healing is usually quicker than for an adult, even after an infection. You can do some things to help it along, like giving a good multivitamin, and keeping clothing from covering the area or rubbing against the bandaging as much as possible. She should eat a good balanced diet, and simply rest. I would think it should heal well enough within a week or so to no longer need the packing, and then the doctor will probably put on steristrips to hold the outer layer of skin closed, instead of the stitches- so the outside scar will be a little nicer in appearance. Once she no longer needs the packing strips you can start gentle applications of vitamin E oil to the area to encourage the skin to heal nicer. For that just poke a hole in the end of a regular vitamin E gelcap and squeeze it out to the skin. A few drops will do, and it's easily absorbed by the skin. Try to have her avoid waistbands that go across the site for a while, until it is really well healed, as it will be a sensative patch for a while yet.
It's hard to say why it became infected, but that will make it take longer to heal overall because the body has to fight the infection and recover from the surgery at the same time. The infection is in the area where the healing has to take place, which is a sort of double whammy for the poor cells trying to repair everything. The packing material will help take some of the pressure off the healing tissues by doing some of the antibacterial/microbial defense for them, so they can concentrate on the healing and repair side of things. Usually once you start packing a wound, it heals pretty well within a week or so.
I feel sympathy for you and her. I did not have a postoperative site infection with mine, I just didn't absorb the sutures under the muscle lining, and they had to be rejected over the next few months. My original incision healed, but then continued to break in spots as the suture material surfaced and came out. It was nearly six months before I could stand a waistband of any sort on it, and I had to swap over my undies for the old high waistband variety and buy looser fit jeans for a while. So I have some idea how she must feel, and how frustrated it is getting to be for you both. Take heart that it should start to show improvement now, and she should heal fairly rapidly now. Good luck to you both!

Answer 2

If she had an infection it will take a while to heal till the infection is gone. I am wondering if you don't mean the doc is going to try Silvadene ointment? This is a good ointment and as he said it should help. You cannot rush the healing process when the wound was infected.

Answer 3

As your daughter only 17 I presume it will be a long time before she thinks of starting a family. I would recommend the Implant IMPLANON. Unlike the pill she doesn't have to remember every day, also unlike the pill if she has sickness and or diarrhoea the implant will still work. Also less risk of Deep Vein Thrombosis and breast cancer. If she goes to her local Family Planning clinic they will do this free of charge and also talk her through options if she does not fancy this one. Your daughter sounds very sensible but being young they often forget that pregnancy is not the only worry try and get her and the boyfriend together and explain about the need for also using condoms as a secondary method of birth control and a deterrent against STD's.