Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Flamazine!

"Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Flamazine!" An original cartoon by Rosie P

Well, my course of the mysterious cream is at an end. Although the PEGJ* infection is definitely still there, it is by no means as swollen or painful as it was. And as a bonus for ten it didn't dissolve my surrounding skin, or finger tips when applied AND even helped the burnt skin surrounding it heal- Yay! 

As ridiculous as it sounds, the cream dissolving my skin was a real fear of mine. It's main component, Silver Sulphadiazine, is great at dissolving extraneous tissue and has antibiotic type properties. As a result all the literature says to use gloves and a spatula to apply it. Of course it didn't come with either of these, so I had to improvise. Thanks to my care company's constant over stocking of supplies, I have more than one spare set of gloves. As for the spatula replacement, that was easy- cotton buds! Which is also a lot kinder on the sore tissue than a sharp edged plastic spatula. 

Of course, in true hospital style, the cream just turned up in my bedside locker one day, with no explanation, let alone any instructions as to how to use it. Hell, it took me the best part of two weeks to work out what it was and where I was meant to be putting it, and that was all by complete accident. Once again, thank god for instruction books and not being a half wit. 

One of my dear friends told me it had been used extensively before the discovery of antibiotics to help treat burns, partial finger amputations, severe ulcers and skin grafts. It was the go to cream by all accounts. But nowhere did it explain what to do with PEGJ stomas. Queue plenty of beard stroking and discussion. I had detailed instructions of what to do if it was a burn or an ulcer, and due to stomach acid leakage there was one present, so... that will do. 

It may not be completely infection free yet, but this is the most comfortable my PEGJ stoma site has felt since it was placed 3 months ago by far. One more course of antibiotics, which my GP prescribed yesterday and I can hopefully wave goodbye to this Staph bug once and for all!