Warning: this is super gross, sorry.
When it rains, boy, does it pour. My mom, who does not have PD, discovered a sore spot on her rump this week. She went to the doctor, and he told her she had an abcess that needed to be drained asap. Apparently it was huge, the size of a fist. Apparently, these things come up very fast and get big very fast and hers was the textbook abcess, hooray. He sent her to the ER, where they gave her a local, drained it, and sent her home. I was at the surgery and got all the instructions for what to do when she got home, which mainly consists of regular sitz baths, keeping is clean, antibiotics, and rest. There are no stitches.
The problem is that the surgical site, a hole about 1.25" in diameter (it's a good sized hole), is directly below and to the slight side of her anus. She has some fecal incontinence and each time I've gone over to her house to help her bathe (I gave up on the sitz bath because as soon as her rump hits that warm water, she pees in it, can't have that), the site is full of fecal matter and I just don't see how I can keep it clean enough for it to heal in between the baths.
She's 75, weak, thank heavens I'm here to help because there is no way she could do this on her own, but still, what can I do? I have gauze I'm supposed to put over the wound after the bath, but I cannot tape it on all sides because one side would be right over her rectum. So when she has an accident, which is unfortunately quite often I'm finding, the fecal matter is getting all over the gauze and pooling in the wound site. Could this be more gross?
Has anyone ever had to deal with this? I have no problem with any of this and can deal with it (although I'd rather not, of course....), except for the physical location of the abcess, it could not be closer to her rectum. I'm really worried she is going to get some huge infection or worse, this thing will never completely heal and just keep getting reinfected and reinfected.
We see her doctor in a week-any suggestions? Thanks for reading and I hope this doesn't give anyone nightmares. And I thought the worst I would ever have to deal with would be changing diapers and sheets for my PD husband, heaven forbid. it comes to that.
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