The agony after abscess drainage and the lack of wound care halp afterward.

[CaitrionaAnne]

After having my armpit abscess drained and packed In a cubicle in a&e under local anaesthetic, the pain the ensued was horrific. Where was my sense of relief? I went into shock at one point. Then, trying to organise removal of the packing tomorrow was equally as horrifying. No nurse in my doctors, the local minor injuries expect me to bring my own dressings (need these prescribed by doctor which would be a miracle when I only had 2 hrs to sort it) so ill have to trot off to urgent care again tomorrow to ensue more agony. Fingers crossed it wont require repacking! And the fact that I have a hole in my armpit really disturbs me!!! Would like to read other people's experiences of this and if you had difficulties in getting the aftercare you needed.

I'm a GP, and I'm afraid our nurse appointments get fully booked at least a week in advance, often two - our patients who need regular dressings for ulcers/wounds that aren't healing all book a month ahead! We can't afford to employ more nurses, so there's really nothing we can do.

Whenever someone comes in to try and book a dressing for the next day, our receptionists have to direct them back to minor injuries.

I had this a few years ago and it was in my armpit also. I had mine drained under a general anaesthetic though but the pain afterwards was horrific. I had to go every day to have it repacked and I can still remember it being one of the worst pains I have ever had. I dreaded it every day. I really feel for you.

I also work in a GP surgery, and as Via says, we simply don't have the capacity to facilitate next day dressing changes as requested by A and E or Minor Injuries.

We aren't a walk-in service - we have a set number of appointments, and they get booked up very quickly.

Our nurses are dealing with all dressing changes (there are a lot of patients out there who have daily dressing changes, booked up to a month in advance), childhood vaccinations (these take up three 10 minute appointment slots), ear syringing, monitoring patients with long-term conditions such as diabetes & asthma, heart disease, B-12 injections, travel vaccinations, taking blood samples, smear tests, doing ECGs etc.

Most of these things are booked 2 weeks in advance, so the appointments fill up extremely rapidly. Unless there's an on the day cancellation, we are very rarely able to offer a nurse's appointment with less than 3 days' notice.

I had an abscess last year, I ended up at the OOH GP at our local hospital who did whatever it is they do to them to stop the pain and burst it. The follow up was done by the minor injuries unit there. They supplied the dressing and gave me another one just in case the first came off showering. I think I had to go back 3 or 4 times before I was discharged.

The packing wasn't too bad actually when they took it out. It think they repacked it

It sounds like I was lucky!

@ViaSacra @Cynthie Totally appreciate what you said. Didnt mean for it to come across negatively for GP surgeries. Mine have been kind but there is just no appointment and with the minor injuries clinic needing me to supply the dressings, i need to see the nurse in my gp first to get s prescription for those. The whole process is so difficult when you are in so much pain. Went back up the urgent care who said they dont do dressings but where else do I go!!! They had to do it in the end and will have to until i can see gp nurse.

@TheChippendenSpook @CrotchetyQuaver Had the first repacking done this morning and was pretty painful! I had prepared for the worst and I survived. Has to get easier from here!!! Hoping i wont have tue daily packing for long cos it is an ordeal to get someone to do it!!!

I get these quite often. How deep was it? I have never had an armpit one packed, Just left open with a dressing on & told not to get it wet. They were painful enough to give me morphine while pregnant

Had one very close to my bum hole that was very very deep and needed gas & air to let anyone see it let alone pack it i was 17 and had lots of students in and out to see the hole deep enough to fit a smarties tube in I was seen in minor injuries every day for that one.

@JurassicShay That sounds awful. Im not sure deep mine is. Im pretty squeamish with these things and prefer not to know. Its a pretty unpleasant experience. I feel for anyone that suffers with them regularly. This is my first ever one and hopefully the last!

@CaitrionaAnne yeah they are not fun! When you go next to have the packing removed if it's that painful ask if it really needs repacking.

How bad was the smell? Iv had some that smelt like death & have had nurses gagging

@JurassicShay I dont think there has been any smell. At least I havent smelled anything anyway! Hopefully the packing wont go on much longer. How do people hold down jobs when they have to have daily packing for months!!!

@CaitrionaAnne have they said it will be months?? Even my bum one was only packed for about 7 days. Did they give you antibiotics?

Our hospital has a dedicated Wound Clinic where you can go and see the nurses for dressings to be changed etc. Unfortunately nobody thought to tell us of this until a good week after surgery. It was a nurse at our urgent care centre who gave us the contact details eventually.

@JurassicShay No they havent told me anything! I just have random people in urgent care doing it so i have no info!!! I have read horror stories where people have had to do it for months and i really feel for them. Ive been on different antibiotics for about 7 days from my gp before i eventually went to have it drained and seems they actually just masked how bad it was. Im on co-amoxiclav now for a week after the procedure. Never want to see an antibiotic again!!

@PlugUgly1980 Wow! Its mad they didn't tell you. I feel like each hospital should have a wound clinic. I feel like im annoying the nurses in urgent care but i have no other options

I had one drained in theatre and it needed packing daily for 2-3 weeks after.

Thankfully my sister is a nurse and could do it daily with the dressing and packs I had prescribed.

The practice nurse reviewed it a couple of times each week. But she did say it needed repacking & dressing daily ideally (but the practice only had provision for 2x week).

i had this and the same problem earlier this year. I called the dr after being discharged with a 7cm wound that was packed and was told there was no appointments so had to go to walk in centre. I kept calling the dr and a day or so later they booked as many appointments as I could get. They also gave me the dressings. it really is a faff but our GP nurses were great once i got to see them. It depends on how big your wound is, but I had to go daily for about 6 weeks!

The nurses did ask if I had anyone they could show to do it for me but dp wasn't keen.

At the weekend I had to have referral to District nurses who were fab.

You really don't realise how much you need the nurses until you need them and the service has been cut so much.

The packing didn't hurt at atll btw after the first couple of wound changes.

I had one in my back, at the edge of my shoulder blade, it went in and down towards my armpit, and was deep enough to stick a whole ball point pen down into, if you were so inclined.
I had to have it dressed twice a day, and had VON (a nursing service) come to my house twice a day for three weeks, once a day for a month, and by then it was shallow enough dh could stomach doing the dressing change.
In the end it to 9 weeks to close, and 10 years later I look like I got shot in the back. I am planning to get a tattoo around the scar, and make it like a treasure map. The X will be the inscision site scar.

Its reassuring reading your stories so I feel less alone about it!! Turns out now i only need repacking and redressing every other day. Mine is about 2/3cm wide and and about 3/4cm deep i think!!! Unknown so far how long will need the packing done but hopefully not long. How do you ladies manage with showering and hair washing without getting anything on the wound?

you will have to not get the wound wet at all really, just be really careful and have baths but don't get the water anywhere near the wound. it's a pain :(