How to help prevent and heal bed sores.

Bed sores are our business specialty. Besides the preventive tools that you have spoken of in previous email / comments I would align myself with a DME Company that specializes in this type of adaptive equipment. It would also make loads of sense to hire the services of a Home Health Nurse that also specializes in this specialty.

There are preventive and dynamic specialty mattresses that medicare will pay for in the home. When it comes to dealing with nursing homes it is their fianancial responsibility to provide the speciality equipment that medicare would pay for in the private home. The big however is that they may wait to provide a more aggressive protocol due to the "cost" of providing the correct equipment. They may opt for the cheaper less expensive treatments and equipmewnt due to the high cost of aggressive solutions; finding the right product for the right job. The old saying is true: "You do get what you pay for". When it comes to preventing pressure sores or treating them I will reach for the most aggressive approach and the sooner the better. Pressure sores in certain individuals only take 20 minutes to start; and will takes months or years to heal. So the our motto we have is "the easiest wound to heal is....the one that never happens." Take the steps now to find the specialists that can help prevent or minimize the pressure sore syndrome. Good luck!

Turn them every hour or 2 n use a ointment you can get from the dr for risins. Also put a pillow under them when u turn them

on bedsores, or any other open wounds...you can use real raw honey! make sure that the sore is protected from getting worse while sitting or laying in bed by using the right protective tools.

taydatay, I'm very happy that your father is well. Good thinking about taking the picture. I'm surprised that just the pain wasn't enough to let him help. But, I'm glad that all is well. I'm sure this tip of the picture may help some other patient who's stubborn. :) God Bless!

I eventually took a pictured of my dad's backside with a digital camera and showed it to him. Until he saw full on what he was doing to his tailbone and buttocks by lying in bed so many hours a day he was impossible to convince that rolling on his sides and moving to a chair (every hour or so through the day and every few hours at night) was necessary. Once he saw the picture, he gained motivation and quit complaining when we tried to prop him with pillows and get him up into the chair. It was truly my last desperate measure, but it worked to startle him into action, I was terrified that a patch of that size was soon to become an open wound. His case was different than most of those presented in this forum in that he was recovering from a serious period of rehabilitation and is now fine, but still, he needed to know how important what we were trying to tell him was. Move them repeatedly, use sheepskin, use an egg-crate style foam "fingers" mattress pad and as a chair pad; use an air mattress bed pad or just use lots of pillows to get the reddened areas elevated and pressure-free.

I eventually took a pictured of my dad's backside with a digital camera and showed it to him. Until he saw full on what he was doing to his tailbone and buttocks by lying in bed so many hours a day he was impossible to convince that rolling on his sides and moving to a chair (every hour or so through the day and every few hours at night) was necessary. Once he saw the picture, he gained motivation and quit complaining when we tried to prop him with pillows and get him up into the chair. It was truly my last desperate measure, but it worked to startle him into action, I was terrified that a patch of that size was soon to become an open wound. His case was different than most of those presented in this forum in that he was recovering from a serious period of rehabilitation and is now fine, but still, he needed to know how important what we were trying to tell him was. Move them repeatedly, use sheepskin, use an egg-crate style foam "fingers" mattress pad and as a chair pad; use an air mattress bed pad or just use lots of pillows to get the reddened areas elevated and pressure-free.

bookworm, our aloe vera plant is outside in our yard, it does not need a lot of water, so it should be fine. And please remember as soon as you see red, use it and smear the gooey stuff over the sore. Don't let it come open. If it does, get the duoDERM I mentioned or the patches. They worked wonder And yes, turning your loved one every hour or so definitely helps. Good luck my friends.

Use lambs wool under them for protection. I was fortunate when the nurse told me about lambs wool , I had some in my sewing room.Also turn the person every hour or two to keep them from getting sore

Plants die on me. My sister got me a bamboo plant in water and told me that for sure I couldn't kill it. It died. So, if I buy one of these plants, how do I go about caring for it? Keep it in the house? Or outside under a shade? How often to water it? Of course, I could always cheat, and sneak to my neighbor's yard and cut up their aloe vera plant. But, I'd rather not do that....By the way, I never thought to use the plant as preventive measures before the bedsore breaks. Mom has one from when she was in the hospital. It hasn't completely healed. The outer skin has never grown over the 2nd layer skin. Thanks, for the info

Thank you so much for this! Never would have thought of it on my own. Mom is showing beginnings of skin breakdown.