The Glove(s) are off... sort of.

Working with information provided by the surgeon's office, as relayed to me by my Home Care nurse, today I am changing the way the forearm flap skin graft area is bandaged. The wound is essentially healed and no longer needs the layer upon layer of protection. So, no more Adaptic. We're doing away with the gauzes. Just the tubi-form, or elastic bandage will be rolled on to prevent damage to the wound site.

Yay!

So now its just a matter of applying moisturizers a couple times a day, and protecting the site from extremes of hot and cold, and not using soap directly on the wound area. And we wait for the bit of staple to work its way to the top of the scar so we can get it out. Oh, maybe I didn't mention that. As I healed and the scabbing came off, we discovered the leg of three staples still left in the arm. Two of them were easily removed, but the third has proven difficult to grab. We're waiting for it to work its way through a few more layers of skin so we can grab it without having to excavate.

Forearm Flap Healing Well

Here are another couple of shots of my forearm skin graft over the area the surgeons took the flap of skin to rebuild the back of my throat (and part of my tongue?). As you can see, it is healing extremely well. In fact, if it weren't for the need to protect the newly healed area from being damaged by clothing and general, everyday activity, it probably doesn't need the bandages anymore. As it is in an area that is subjected to incidental contact with way too many things, we are continuing to cover it. Tight to the skin is a single layer of Adaptic, which is then covered by a doubled layer of gauze, held in place by a wrapping gauze I can't remember the name of right now, and then the tubular elastic bandage.