Lets start with a story, (thanks SHCR:) A few weeks
ago one Sunday I was carrying a bit of timber and somehow something on the floor
managed to trap my feet, the harder I tried to move the tighter the grip on my
feet. It was 11 am, so no I wasn't carrying a gin and tonic!
Cut to slow motion sequence, the feet have stopped moving, the
rest of me hasn’t so with hands full I was right on target to take a bite out
of the concrete floor. I decided that a flat face wasn’t a look I aspired to so
used my forearm against a timber post as a brake block. I will spare you the
close up shots and rather bleepy soundtrack.
So now I have a deep graze, but on the upside at least I don’t
have a flat face. I washed the wound with boiled salt water and applied antiseptic
every 12 hours and kept it lightly covered most of the time. I am 61 and have a rather
denuded immune system so despite my best efforts infection was setting in rapidly and the weekend was approaching.
It was now Friday and the skin round the wound was reddening
and hurt as much as the wound so I went to the pharmacist for advice. I should
mention that I had a nasty throat abscess in July and ended up in A&E twice
so I know how rapidly things can go pear shaped.
The pharmacist recommended Hydrocolloid dressings, I’d never
heard of them and yet apparently that have been in use in hospitals for years
as it speeds recovery and reduces scarring. So I used one on my forearm, they are a little weird and floppy, no jokes please:)
Within 24 hours the wound was calming down, by 48 hours all
reddening had gone and because they are breathable and water proof you can take
a bath no prob. In terms of cost they are great value as you only need to change
them every 3 days and they don’t fall off meantime.
I bet if you looked at the total cost of treating infected grazes
in the over 50’s that have then needed a Dr, Practice/District Nurse or A&E
to intervene its a significant annual cost to the NHS.
So why not run an awareness campaign and consider handing out a pack of
these Hydrocolliod dressings with every flu jab... because compared to anything
else you can buy over the counter these dressings will stop a lot of minor
injuries turning into things that need medical intervention and that cost the NHS a lot to treat every day?
Just saving the cost to the NHS of 10 patients being treated for infected grazes would buy an awful lot of sticking plasters...
Radical or old school common sense?
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