After years of cuts and scrapes having been handled by a simple bandaid and some neosporin, it can be daunting when a wound requires more care than what’s in the typical medicine cabinet. While it’s generally easy to identify a wound that needs immediate medical attention, the care after the initial visit to the ER is far more involved than the common laceration that generally heals on its own. In this blog we’re focusing on the steps you can take to deliver proper wound care at home.
WHAT STEP SHOULD I TAKE TO ASSIST WITH THE HEALING PROCESS?
In order to optimize the healing process, it’s important to create the best conditions for the new granulation tissue to form. Granulated tissue is the first step in healing the wound, followed by new skin growing over this newly formed tissue. The best condition to promote granulated tissue growth is clean, warm, and moist.
WHICH PRODUCTS SHOULD I USE?
Optimizing wound care at home involves using products that will help red tissue grow. Ensuring the cleanliness of your products, hands, and the wound itself is the first step to take before caring or covering your wound. This involves products such as a mild antibacterial soap and non-sterile gloves. Gauze, wraps, and other dressings are all forms of covering the wound and
keeping it clean, warm, and moist. Keeping a clean dressing on your wound, and changing it regularly will help with the healing process.
WOUND CARE PROCEDURE AT HOME
Your healthcare provider will give you specific instructions on your wound care, as well as directions on how often to change your wound’s dressings. Generally, wound care at home involves the following:
- Wash your hands thoroughly and apply gloves if necessary.
- Remove the dressing from the wound. If it sticks to the wound, or the area around the wound, moisten the dressing with a saline solution.
- After washing your hands a second time, gently clean the wound starting in the center and working your way out to the outer edges.
- Apply a skin barrier to the skin around the wound and apply a new dressing to the wound.
- Dispose of the old dressing and wash your hands.
EATING HABITS
You may be surprised to learn that wound care at home requires proper eating habits. Vitamins and nutrients from food help expedite the healing process. Pay extra attention to consuming proteins to promote muscle and skin repair, carbohydrates for energy, and water to help replace fluids lost from draining wounds. It’s also important to eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables to get proper amounts of vitamin D.
WHEN SHOULD I SEEK HELP?
If you experience fever, nausea or vomiting, or if your wound swells, reddens, or starts to feel warm, expels a foul odor, or becomes more painful, contact your healthcare provider. These symptoms may be indicative of infection. If your wound is not fully healing on it’s own, then you may have a chronic wound that requires specialty care from Hyper Healing.
CONTACT US ABOUT WOUND CARE
At Hyper Healing, our wound care and hyperbaric medicine clinics offer new advanced therapies and progressive procedures to work in conjunction with the care from our referring providers to heal patients faster and more completely. We believe that healing chronic wounds requires a multi-dimensional approach. To schedule an appointment, please contact us or call us at 813-591-4570.
