What is the best way to care for bedsores?

@Swootie - your mom needs to be turned every hour or two to keep the weight/pressure off of the coccyx. Also, the diapers are very rough to the skin and cause skin breakdowns faster than if you just have a chux pad on the mattress - that's why hospitals don't use diapers. If you can, get her to her physician and hopefully from there he can refer her to a wound-care facility and get a visiting nurse to come and do the wound care for you. Medicare covers that.

I'm sorry I have a new question. My mother is bed ridden and she has a wound on her coccyx and it had healed. She was wearing a Catheter but ee had to take it out because it kept causing problems but now that she is wearing diaper I am having a hard time keeping her coccyx dry and the wound opened back up. What can I do?

Thank you all for your answers and experiences. I took my Mom who is 90 home from rehab, where she was for 3 weeks following hip surgery. I only saw the bed sore because she said something hurt, The doctor who discharged her never told me she had a bed sore. We are seeing the surgeon tomorrow, but I have been treating it myself. I read salt water to clean, honey or Vitamin E to keep it moist. It did make it feel better, but no change, so I switched to Neosporin, I think tonight I will just was with the salt water and add the honey.
I also read the do nut can make it worse, using a egg create cover or soft cushion especially made for sores is recommended, I also read a saline solution from the drug store should be used to clean.

Thank you all again
Gerri

I don't know about treating an actual open wound bedsore but you may want to ask your doctor about a prescription product that goes by the name of granulex or granulderm or a generic calloed TBC (for the ingredients trypsin, balsam peru, castor oil) I have used it on heels of the foot which have become reddended and mushy to prevent a bedsore. It is soothing and works great. But not sure whether it is used for actual open bedsores. But as far as prevention of one, it worked.

Please don't try to treat it yourself. It's possible that it's deeper or wider inside than you know. It needs to be treated by a doctor. There is special dressing and washing that needs to be done. If not treated correctly it can go to the bone. Please have her seen by the doctor PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!!!!

Have you tried a "donut hole" or "egg crate" cushion in chair? Check your med supply company to see if its covered by medicare if your MD orders it. If you don't have visiting nurse as MD to order so that RN can assess the wound for MD treatment order. Repositioning from side to side every two hours when in bed, with pillows to support back to prevent roll.

Ekb,sorry about your Mom's bedsores... I used work at NH and took care of patient(lucky us we had only one bedsore in entire our floor) what we did 1)make sure she is dry all the time 2)turn her side R and L every 2 to3 hrs 3) if she could set in w/c that make her good blood circulation and good for her body. When she is in bed or chair use air cushion (RoHo).RoHo cushion is a little expensive but sometimes medcare pay for it. Ask PCP. Like Nancy said neosporin is not good for bedsore... Keep her dry is best!!! My patient's sore was 6 cm diameter when she admitted our NH, about 4month to healed and small scars but no open....It was all team work. Good luck to you and your Mom. Sue

I think you need a "doughnut" that you can buy in medical supply stores and online. These are perfect for sores to keep pressure off of them. Cleaning with peroxide and using an antibiotic cream or gel like Neosporin is a good idea but let the doctor see the sore. With my grandmother and my mother in law, I had to learn wound care for their sores and was given special materials to put into the disinfected sore twice daily.

I don't know about using Neosporin for a long time on something like this. It's my understanding that Neo will cause a wound to get worse rather than better after a few days. I could be wrong about that, but seems I heard that somewhere. Back in the old days when my grandma was in a nursing home, she also got a bedsore right to her tailbone. In those days they would roll a person over and expose it to air, then put the 'lights' on it. Which to me looked like a modified heat lamp I guess. I know with my father-in-law we had a thin air mattress made especially for this problem that went under his sheets, which seemed to help. I would start doing an internet search as to what products are out there, and then read reviews of those products, that help with this. I vote to expose a bedsore to the air once in awhile to let it dry out, because that sounds logical to me.