Should I remove this dressing?

[WiltedDaffs]

Had skin biopsy on my toe last Wednesday, 5 days ago, and it was stitched. The nurse put a dressing on said get it checked at GP after 7 days, stitches out in 14.

She said the 7 day check was optional and I’m sure she said the dressing would last 14 days. But surely that’s wrong and it needs changing?

I’ve got a nurse appointment to check/redress it on Friday which is nine days later. I don’t think I want to leave the same dressing on for 9 days. Tried to contact GP for advice via econsult, they were supposed to call me back today but haven’t.

So what should I do? Wait until Friday? Go to walk in centre tomorrow? Or remove it myself and hope it’s ok underneath?

Walk in centre sounds like a good plan.

If it's all dry with no strikethrough/leakage, no redness, swelling pain or inflammation then just leave it.
If you have a spare dry dressing then remove it, check for the above and replace.
Nurse.

Does the dressing still look clean and dry, do you want to post a pic. Does it itch or hurt at all or smell.

I'd probably have had the dressing off by day seven at the latest, I am a firm believer in letting the air get to things.
Plus it's probably filthy on the outside by now, and that would be vexing me.

But the actual nurse advise upthread might be best !

It did bleed a little in the first 24 hours and that went through the dressing. Which was my main reason for contacting GP for advice but they haven’t called me back.

I don’t have the type of stuff the hospital used, they didn’t give me anything. I have some antiseptic and small sterile stick on dressings from Tesco which might work though I worry the dried blood might have stuck the dressing to my toe!

Warm salty water gets stuck dressings off, what sort of deessing have they put on it, if the sutures are undernearh you might need a bit of padding like mepore. You need to avoid anything with fibres, does the tesco deessing say its non adhesive.

If there's been no more bleeding since the first day or two and it's not painful, hot or smelly then there's no harm in leaving it alone, but you can change the dressing for a clean one (large plaster will do) if you want to.
It's a myth about 'letting the air get to it', doesn't actually help it slows down healing. Wounds like to be warm and not too dry. There was a rather horrific research study conducted in the 60s on pigs, which supports this.

Picture

Thats awkward, a stick on dressing will just fall off. It looks ok but if you do change it you will need a small length of small tubinet or gauze to twist around it.

I'd leave that until your appointment. It's clean other than the early leakage.

Looks fine. If not painful/swollen/oozing then leave it alone until the Practice Nurse checks it. It’s best covered with a dressing while the sutures are in place because it’s on your foot, so more vulnerable to getting dirty.

If it’s not sore or red I would leave it alone until you are seen on Friday. It would be hard to put a dressing on your toe yourself that would stay on.