"Long term care of a chronic wound"

Over the past 22 months I have been plagued by a chronic abdominal wound which has resulted in 4 operations. The 3rd operation under the Western General Hospital (WGH) surgical team did not go to plan it was implied that I was making my wound worse on purpose and this would impact on my future care.  

After much persuasion by the community nurses I asked for a referral to Plastic Surgery. The care and attention I had from the whole team was second to none. I was made to feel at ease, they were shocked that someone thought I could have been making the wound worse myself and made sure I knew that no one in plastics thought that. I finally had surgery at the beginning of August and it was the best thing I did, although now I have a substantial scar and no umbilical. I am just so grateful to the surgeons, nurses and care assistants in the plastic surgery department who restored my confidence in the health service. 

I have complex health issues including being immunocompromised due to oral corticosteroids and on immunotherapy which both inhibit wound healing and make me prone to infection. The surgeon that did the 3rd operation did not believe this and told me there is no reason for the wound not to heal. After this I had never felt so unsafe in a hospital. I was never asked if I was doing anything to the wound it was just implied that I was and I felt I was given no opportunity to defend myself. I therefore suffered far longer than I should have as I did not want to seek help to resolve the wound due to the experience I had with the team at the WGH. 

So once I was under the care of plastic surgery at St Johns Hospital I felt a wave of relief come over me as I was listened to, included in decisions and was made to feel that my ability to live was important to them and therefore they wanted to resolve what had happened. I did not want surgery but after 5 months of no improvement despite a variety of different treatment options we had no choice.

It was the best thing I did and I hope the team at St Johns know just how much what they have done has meant to me as I now have my life back.