Wound Center

Today I spent the morning at a Wound Healing Clinic that the hospital owns. This is the first time the hospital has ever sent a dietetic intern over to the clinic, so they weren't really sure what to expect. I have to say it's not for people who get queasy. The first patient I saw had a Stage 1, maybe Stage 2 ulcer that was probably the size of a quarter. I thought I would be fine, so I decided to sit in while the doctor examined her. He started debriding the wound, and if I hadn't left the room I am pretty sure I would have fainted. Basically debriding is just a fancy way of saying they take some instruments and dig into the wound to get out all of the "bad stuff" so that the tissue can start growing. That was definitely an experience I only needed to have once. I left the room when I started to sweat and get a little bit dizzy, but the nurse came out and basically laughed at me because that wound was nothing compared to what they see on a daily basis. Clearly, wound healing won't be something I pursue as a profession.
For the rest of the morning I just went into the rooms as the nurse was doing the intake interview and I tried to stay on the opposite side of the person that the wound was on. There aren't a lot of nutrition screening questions that are asked in the clinic. They basically ask if the patient is eating well. They also recommend that all of their patients take a protein powder, Vitamin C and Zinc, and possibly a multivitamin. This is the basic protocol for all wounds, even in the main hospital. If the wound is not healing well then they recommend Arginaid, which is a protein powder with Arginine in it, since studies have shown that arginine is important for healing.
All of the cases I saw were pretty interesting, but one just stood out. A man came in for follow up on a wound he has had on his heal for quite some time. The nurse started to examine his wound and noticed new wounds on his hands. This wasn't something she was expecting, since his heel wound had been healing nicely, so she started to probe and ask questions about the wounds. After a few minutes he finally told her that he poured Clorox on his foot wound, and the wounds on his hands were as a result of touching the Clorox. A friend had told him that Clorox would kill the infection on his foot and so he tried it. It was really sad to see, because he was clearly in pain. The Clorox had burned his hands so bad that he couldn't even straighten out his fingers. The doctor told me that this isn't the first time he has seen patients try home remedies like this, and he is often fighting with patients who won't comply with his recommendations. Because wound healing is so slow, patients will often try anything anyone tells them in hopes of speeding things up. He says a lot of patients won't even take the supplements prescribed, and as a result it takes a lot longer for them to heal.