Puncture Wound Treatment

In a previous entry, I wrote about a puncture wound injury I sustained while I was on vacation in Pampanga. I was rushed to the ER for the injury.

After the initial wound cleaning and treatment administered by the ER doctor at the hospital, I was asked to continue cleaning and dressing the wound at least twice a day. This is to continue until the wound closes, no longer bleeds and starts to dry. Funny, I was thinking accident insurance while I was at the ER.


Medical Prescriptions

The medications prescribed were only two: one is a set of antibiotics (Cloxacillin) and a pain reliever (Celebrex). I was a bit worried whether the prescribed medicines were enough. The bruising and trauma was so much that the entire right leg was in pain.

I always thought that the drug Augmentin was the gold standard as far as antibiotics go. But then the prescription antibiotic Cloxacillin was for 7 days, and 4 times a day and each capsule was at 500 mg. So maybe that sufficed.

The pain reliever Celebrex though wasn't enough to alleviate the pain. I quickly took the Tramadol that Tita Divine gave.

I've taken Tramadol in the past and know how strong it is when I took it for my back pain treatment. In fact, the back rehab doctor cautioned its use as it may cause addiction.

You can be addicted to this drug because it masks the pain quickly and effectively. That may give you a poor indicator on how the injury's healing is progressing. The last time I used this drug was for my left shoulder pain treatment.





Wound Cleaning Procedures

For a whole week I cleaned and dressed the wound twice a day. These were what I used: tweezers, scissors, surgical tape, sterile gauze, cotton, Hydrogen Peroxide and Povidone-Iodine (Betadine) and a syringe (without needle).


I used the syringe to flush Hydrogen Peroxide into the deep wound. It was a bit unnerving at first because I had to force open the wound so everything inside the wound can be cleaned.

After the flushing, I used a ball of cotton to clean the outer part of the wound with the peroxide. It was painful every time anything touched the wound because of the trauma and heavy bruising.

Finally, I applied Betadine before closing the wound with a dressing as shown below:


I did this twice a day, everyday for a week until the bleeding practically stopped. At that time, I'd just put a band-aid to cover the now closing wound.

It's very difficult to walk with the wound as it was. But with just the now thinner band-aid, I was able to slip my right foot more comfortably into the slipper.

This, in addition to the decreased swelling, made the pain more bearable. I will give an update on this injury in the next entry.



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