What is a Wound VAC?

The next day we visited a man named Steve who had undergone a form of hip surgery and needed a wound VAC to collect pus and other bodily fluids leaking out of the wound. Wound VACs are not pretty and smell anything but nice. They must be cleaned out once a week, a chore generally done by a nurse. This man was under 50 years old, which is young for a facility like this. He had some previous medical conditions and was struggling with smoking, things which can delay progression in rehab. According to Athina, one of the best forms of rehabilitation is walking. It’s that simple! Walking gets your blood flowing, works all of your muscles, and is extremely beneficial for your heart. In the past couple days there have been some patients who are never excited to walk. It is generally difficult for elderly individuals and they don’t get very far before needing a wheelchair break, but Athina insists that they get their walking in. Luckily, Steve walked fine without any assistance. Since Steve had already been in the facility for about a week or so, he was due for his progress report. This was the one form of paperwork that I saw most often because it must be done for each patient once a week. A group of tests must be given and recorded in this report, along with how the patient feels they are doing in therapy, if they see improvements, and how well they are accomplishing their goals. One test is the TUG or “timed up and go” where a patient gets up from their chair/bed and walks ten feet and back as quickly as they can. Another test is how many times they can get up from a chair and sit down in thirty seconds. The most I have seen so far is 7 times, which is pretty good. It is important to keep a positive attitude even if these patients don’t do as well as you expect or want them to. We finished the report with Steve who exceeded all his goals and did so well that Athina thinks he could leave by the end of this week. We went and visited a few other patients after Steve.