Abscess healing with crohns

[ryanj]

I have an Abscess drained by an emergency operation last night which was "packed". I was sent home the same day and told that I would need the hole packed each day until it has fully healed over. What I'm rather confused about is the type of packing used, I asked the nurse today was this the right stuff and she told me it was. The packing used does not fill the hole and the nurse only inserted a 4-5cm strip of what looked like candy floss. Is this normal? I have noticed that there is still a small amount of puss coming out of the wound which I expected. My abscess is also located on the inner side of my anus on the cheek so the infection risk to me seems high which is why I'm so paranoid about the wrong type of packing being used etc. Please could anyone who knows about this type of thing tell me if what they are doing is normal. I'm also changing the dressing twice a day and taking a shower with water only once a day before the packing is changed.

Thanks in advance for any advice and support,
Ryan

 

[Avw]

I've never heard of (at least not recently) doctors ordering their patients to pack their own dressings back into a wound. I've had to remove packing a few days post op, but have never had to re-pack one.

Maybe ask her about placing a Seton in there to keep it open and draining, that seems to be the protocol these days.

Good luck and hope you feel better soon!