Wound Care Question - cover it or not? *TRIG*

[deadstar]

I had a 10cm long 2cm wide cut on my calf stitched last sunday and the stitches were holding fine until yesterday when they burst and the cut re-opened to about 5mm wide. I went to get them taken out at the practice nurse today and she took them all out and dressed them with (she said) something with silver in that works as an antiseptic and a massive plaster.

However, all the rest of today it has been really itchy and quite sore and i peeled back the plaster to look at it and it is oozing quite thick pus and looks like it isnt healing. would it be better to leave it covered or take the dressings off to let it get some air?

[gorybalamory]

is the dressing antiseptic in any way? x

[blondiebear]

Go back to the doctor, nurse, walkin doc, or A+E, whatever you can. Immediately!

[Animad]

As it is oozing pus, get it looked at as soon as you can. That and the pain are both signs of infection and once an infection has quite a bit of pus with it it usually needs a course of anti-biotics to help it.

[deadstar]

I took all the dressings off and it's stopped oozing and the redness has gone down but its re-opened to 7mm now. It's also alot less painful but i've made a doctors appointmnt to get it looked at on Monday but will go earlier if it starts to look bad.
Thanks for all your replies :)
xxxx

[Aidee]

I think you should try and get an appointment sooner as at this point it's already bad. It's possible that it ripped out the stitches because of the pus building up inside. It sounds like its infected, and you need antibiotics for that. Waiting until Monday could let the infection spread.