15 November 2020
Since the dressing change on Friday, Joyce has been getting a lot of blockage alarms from the Wound VAC. We can see the bubbles move from the wound to the canister on the Wound VAC but it still complains about blockage.
We do notice the pressure drops from the 125 the Wound VAC is supposed to maintain to 50. But there is no audible leak in the drape covering the wound itself.
It's a puzzle.
The only relief we've gotten from the alarms is by changing her position. And the best position since Friday has been sitting in one of the living room chairs. The dining room chairs not so much. And lying down, nope.
Which makes sleep difficult for both of us.
I did text Salwa on Saturday morning (her day off) with an image of the alert and showing the drop in pressure. She suggested cycling power on the unit (turn it off and then on again) but we'd already tried that, of course. It was what Dana the Kaiser advice nurse and Wound VAC specialist had advised.
But by then Joyce was sitting in the living room chair and the pressure had gotten up to 100.
I was very tempted to put a new lily pad on myself, but as long as we were getting flow and pressure, it seemed unnecessary. I'll just note this is not the most convenient location for the lily pad when Salwa positions a new one on Monday.
In researching lily pad placement, it occurred to me that I've never documented the procedure for you. Here's the procedure as outlined at UC Davis.
Joyce is not using the black foam yet and none of her nurses syringes the wound or uses the window paning of the would edges technique. But it's otherwise what happens when she has her dressing change.
The big trick is cutting the foam to cover the wound.
Salwa always asks if we have plans for the weekend (we do whatever the Wound VAC wants to do). This weekend, we told her, we hoped to get the ballast on our bathroom fixture replaced.
That just may happen late this afternoon. Our friend Dan1 offered to do it, parts included.
Let there be light,2 as we always like to say.