How to treat a bedsore

Bedsore or pressure sore

This condition is especially an unpleasant issue for elderly people and those who are unfortunately, confined to bed because of a certain condition. Due to fairly lengthy amounts of time that such people spend in bed, the development of bedsores is sometimes inevitable. They are of an extremely unpleasant character, causing a lot of pain, and it takes quite some time before they disappear (up to a couple of months). One extremely important thing to always keep in mind is that, if not treated in time and in a proper manner, they can even be terminal. Helping a loved one suffering from this condition, should thus be made a family effort in order to enable the person in question the recovery as fast as possible.

Prevention Measures and Techniques

One of the first pieces of advices any doctor or specialist is to give you is that the person in question should move as much as possible, and in his power. The ideal time intervals are every 15 minutes. That way the initial pressure will be warded off the sore and it will provide momentary relief. In those more serious cases, when person in question is unable to move, due to severity of overall condition then he/she should be moved every two hours, on average. Another way of alleviating this painful condition is to provide the best and the coziest mattress you can find, also special chairs can prove to be extremely helpful, and so can the blocks made of foam. As far as the sores are concerned, vital is to make sure they are cleaned with a specific solution (Salin solution proved to be most helpful) and the bedsore is to be wrapped with the appropriate dressing (i.e. a type of bandage, which is transparent and has the ability to seal the wound). Another important thing to bear in mind is that such dressing should not be tempered for a couple of days, and it should be changed only when that period has passed. Last but not the least, is the person’s diet. What has been established as a fairly common occurrence is bad nutrition, which only adds up to the, otherwise, weakened skin, and is most likely to bring about further skin breakdown. In order to encourage and elevate the entire healing process, person suffering from bedsores should eat food that abounds in proteins, in the first place. Then in the interval of twice a day it is essential for him/her to take supplements based on vitamin C, and also to drink at least eight glasses of water, in order to avoid dehydration and worsening of the condition.