Hello, I had a preemie 29 week old baby on 4-21-11, I went to my doctor last week so he could take my staples out while he was doing it he looked at my incision and said "It could be infected because when they stapled me up they didn't put enough anti bacterial cream on my incision" is that normal for doctor's to make that kind of mistake?
Yes-I don't like staples-I prefer the sub cutaneous stitches and steri strips and such-use some betadine and see if that helps-and hot water-hot as you can tolerate.
Infections could be caused by anything, and yes they are common.
Infections happen from a variety of sources. When he said "It could be ______." he was just giving you one of about five super common infection vectors... not saying that was what happened.
Out of curiosity... had you just asked "Did I do anything wrong?"
Conversations with med profs often go like this:
"Did I do something wrong?"
"Maybe. Or possibly there wasn't enough antibacterial ointment put on."
OR
"The surgeons screwed up?"
"Maybe, or rubbing from jeans, or unwashed hands, or even splattering from cooking."
AKA
You give them one possibility, and they'll say 'possibly', and then give you 1-5 other ways the same thing could have happened... starting with the opposite of what you're suggesting. It's not to be contrary, merely to show that in most cases it's impossible to assign blame because there are SO many different ways that things happen.
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I think it was kind of odd he made the comment about why. My incision got infected the second time pretty bad by the third day while in the hospital- those were stitches though and I also seemed to react to the steri strips. The first time I had staples and I don't really remember it being infected however it must have been because I know I went in quite awhile after to have it checked (after my 29 weeker came home) - I was just too wrapped up in everything else I guess to really pay attention to taking care of it. This last time I used neosporin on it quite a lot and then wore granny panties with a pad on it to protect the incision - mine is vertical.
Congratulations on your little guy!
Cesarean incision sites are commonly infected... you are very lucky that is your only complication. You should also feel very lucky to have it caught before it made your whole body sick, because those wound infections go septic fast.
I'm not sure if it's normal, but I have had an infected incision. I don't know how the doctor can make that call. An infection could come from many different things.
That response seems odd to me. What is the doctor going to do about it now though? Antibiotics or a recheck?
N.
The doctor doesn't really KNOW why it is infected...it could be anything at all ...it is really quite common for surgery sites to become infected and it should be something that is easily dealt with...don't worry yourself too much with it. Just follow the directions that he gives you and take any medications that he might give you to help clear the infection.
