What Were We Thinking?

When Michael left the hospital they were happy to give me supplies to do his twice daily wet to dry dressing changes. 

Not sure what that means...it means that I will need one bottle of hydrogen peroxide, one bottle of 0.9% saline solution, one sterile cotton swab, one 2x2 gauze square for cleaning, 2 1/2 inches of kerlex for packing the wound, and one abdominal pad and two 12 inch pieces of paper tape.  Granted we don't use an entire bottle of hydrogen peroxide or an entire bottle of saline.  But let me tell you that they don't last long.

IT IS NOT ENOUGH!

Unfortunately, I have been on the nursing side and always thought that I was giving the patient's family more than enough supplies. What were we thinking?  Crap happens people.  The swab falls on the floor..it goes in the trash.  You need a prescription for that saline solution.  I haven't been able to find the long sterile swabs anywhere.  Abdominal pads...a 12 pad box cost $7.00.

So every time we went in for a wound check I robbed the room.  The doctors laughed eventually because they knew as soon as I came in the door I was scoping out the room for possible supplies.


I know that every doctor, nurse and aide thought that they were being generous and they were, however, it is never enough.  And even though I have done more dressing changes than I care to admit to, it is lonely when you are doing them at home and you don't have that change of shift nurse looking at the same wound and confirming what you think.  I will admit that every time we went in I was a ball of nerves wondering if they thought the wound looked as good as I thought it did.  For the record they agreed with me.

So to all the families that I sent out the door with a bag of supplies and written instructions...I am sorry if I short changed you.  I now know it is never enough.