Now, I must tell you that blood for the most part does not bother me but puncture wounds are a different matter. And this one was really ugly with a hunk of flesh hanging off his arm. Go to your left elbow and go down about an inch or two on the inside of the arm and then pretend there is a gash about a inch and half long and at least a quarter of inch deep with a 90 degree corner shape to the wound.
Knowing that he is a "picker" and will not leave anything on that faintly resembles a bandage the first worry was how in the world are we going to treat that. We slathered down a hunk of gauge with some plantain salve (a natural antibiotic) and tied a bandana around it---we really did not want to tape down his hairy arm....
We ate breakfast and started in on our day, until we looked over and he had the bandage off. So I dug around looking for more and better materials to do the job....and finally asked Hubby to call the hospice folks and have them send out a nurse.
Well, nurses do not sew people up...and while I do have a medical sewing kit I did not consider this a life and death need so opted to leave it in it's sterile package. The nurse put some kind of strip on it...not exactly a butterfly, which I would have already put on it except I couldn't figure out how to make them stay on. Not sure she did either but as of tonight they are still on under the foam pad and gauze wrap. She said she would be back on Friday to check on him.
She hadn't been gone more than an hour before he rolled over and started to pick at the gauze. I suggested to Hubby that we tie something on his wrist as a distraction from the bandage further up his arm. So far that seems to have worked. He also seems to be mentally aware of the situation and has not fought the bandage. (Yet!) Hubby has kept him on his back all day sit up in the bed. Something about being on his back helps keeps him from "picking". Hubby put him back in the bed because it does not have arms to rub on the bandage.
That reminds me...How did he get this horrible gash in the first place?
As he was transferring to the chair this morning his arm slipped and his body weight went down on the front side of the Geri chair. The Lewy Body Dementia leaves him with no reflexes and no ability to react to a situation. Unfortunately, this chair has no padding on the ends of the chair arms and the steel edge cut into his arm.
Wounds have been a major heart ache and fear for us. It takes so very little for him to hurt himself yet on the other hand his hands are as strong as a vise grip. He will grip a hold of something like the rail to the bed....and then when you have a hold of him, trying to get him moved into his chair, he will start to slip with the person holding him and in the process the skin on his hand will rip because he will not let go of the railing. This kind of thing is not uncommon and most difficult to deal with emotionally. In the process of trying to keep from injuring him (and yourself) he ends up tearing the skin on his hand.