u/drewster_33

Hi all,

I just wanted to encourage anyone who might be having issues with their incision site healing. I had developed on infection around the 6 week mark and was healing slowly. I posted pictures around that time if you want to check out what it looked like. I was feeling pretty discouraged, but luckily connected with my care team and was put on antibiotics right away. I took them for 2 weeks, left the wound uncovered (except when wearing nice shirts and not wanting to get blood/puss on them) and washed gently with soap in the shower every day. Now sitting at the 9 week mark, I’m happy to share that when the latest scab fell off, there was no more open wound and this scar had developed.

I hope this encourages anyone who gets anxious and has a lot of questions. #1 thing I learned is to not be afraid to reach out to your doctors with your concerns. That’s what they are there for.

Biventricular ICD placed on June 3rd. Pictures are in chronological order.

#1. June 12th
#2. June 16th
#3. July 13th - 11:28am - central scab flaked off in the shower
#4. July 14th - 9:07am - noticed this looked concerning and messaged my doctor + device clinic, sending them pictures. Started antibiotic prescription 2 hours later, and was told that the device team would inspect the site during my scheduled 6 week appointment on the 16th.
#5. July 14th - 7:36pm - over the course of 10 hours a new scab had developed.
#6. July 14th - 9:05pm - newly developed scab was accidentally scraped off.