2 October 2020
The Wound VAC's job is to suck fluids from the wound through the foam dressing. It does this constantly. You can disconnect it briefly but it's designed to run 24 hours a day in bursts of five minutes with two minutes off.
That pattern sounds reasonable unless you're trying to sleep. But it was so hot around here yesterday that Joyce had the fan on and that "white noise" masked the intermittent pumping sounds.
It didn't mask the VAC's error alert, though.
If it runs into a problem, the VAC alerts you with a series of beeps. Which is repeats interminably. It doesn't like to be ignored.
There are a few help screens on its touchscreen to help you resolve problems but there isn't much to do for any particular problem.
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THIS MORNING around 5 a.m., it reported a couple of problems.
The first was a low pressure warning. The VAC wasn't getting its pressure up to 125mmHg. It reported various levels including 0, 25, 75. There was nothing obstructing the tube and the canister had been on for nearly a day.
When it kept complaining after a restart, I replaced the nearly full canister. That seemed to help. I saw the unit hit 125mmHg and went back to sleep.
But then we started getting warnings that the canister wasn't engaged. There was a similar warning with the other canister. Hmm.
I consulted the manual, whose link I've put on the Headlines page so I can reference it quickly. Pop the canister off, pop it on, you should hear a click if it's engaged.
I always hear a click.
The connection between the canister and the VAC is a little silicon seal. I felt the air move through it and you can see the connection is made.
The click is made by a long metal arm with a notch on the end that grabs a plastic tab on the canister.
Eventually it seemed to function at full pressure. And I slept in until 8:30.
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WHEN SALWA THE NURSE arrived today, she didn't thought maybe the unit was malfunctioning. She offered to call Apria and see if we could get a replacement before the weekend.
Meanwhile, Joyce reported to her some soreness in the wound area right where the muscle is exposed, which is also close to where the lily pad is attached. Joyce isn't really taking pain medication, so Salwa advised her to take Tylenol when she feels the soreness this weekend.
And I noticed her wound leg was slightly more swollen than her other leg. Salwa saw that too and thought it might have to do with the VAC failure.
She took photos, texted them to me and I emailed them to Dr. Tong to keep her in the loop. The two organizations don't share information easily.
After the dressing change, the VAC got up to full pressure and we watched the fluid draining off. Joyce took a couple of Tylenol too.
Our air quality is an unhealthy 189 and it's a humid (69 percent) 76 degrees around noon. After I post this, we'll put on masks and take a little walk.
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THANKS FOR YOUR FEEDBACK on the topic of depression. It's helpful to know other people have been on the roller coaster, too.
And yesterday Joyce received a beautiful card from Alana with several doses of encouraging advice.
So we're thinking good thoughts despite all the beeping.