Slow Healing Wounds
The older I get the more I realize life is one huge class room. I believe there are life lessons to be learned on a daily basis. Each day we should be growing, learning more about others, and especially learning even more about ourselves. Sometimes the oddest situations in life have hidden lessons in them if we look deep enough.
In March of this year I had a terrible fall, resulting in a torn deltoid muscle and a horrible wound on my lower left leg. My arm is still in pain some days, but the most troublesome issue was the wound on my lower leg.
It would not heal correctly.
Doctors considered my wound to be a slowing healing wound. The usual turnaround time for a wound to heal is about 5- 14 days depending on the depth of it, but if you have any contributing negative medical factors the wound could possibly NEVER heal correctly.
If you seek help and follow the directions of the specialist your wound will heal.
I was referred to a wound specialist. I had to visit him every week for about five weeks straight. I wanted my leg to heal properly, so I had to make the uncomfortable and inconvenient decision to arrive to work late every Monday for about five weeks. Not only did I have to inconvenience my schedule, I had to do some very uncomfortable things that might have looked a little weird to the on looker.
When you have a slow healing wound, and you are tired of it seeping out into every area of your life you will do ANYTHING to make sure it heals properly.
No matter how “weird” or “crazy” your process looks, you need to heal!
I was in the wound clinic one day and I saw a chart on the wall, the top of it read “Essentials to Wound Healing”, at the bottom the word “Healogics” was written.
I’m a pretty deep thinker… Of course I am, I’m a writer. LOL! So, when I read it my wheels began to spin.
I began to think about the contributing medical factors of my slow healing wound. I compared it to the emotional wounds we tend to have and how sometimes those wounds take so long to heal.
Some peoples emotional wounds never heal.
Through this process I realized why some of our emotional wounds never heal, we don’t know the essentials of healing and we continue to use outdated tactics.
I believe the things I’ve learned in the process of dealing with my VISIBLE slow healing wound will help you and I in the healing of the INVISIBLE emotional slow healing wounds we have.
I found out that there were three contributing factors to my lack of healing:
1. I would swell a lot in my legs and feet.
2. I was cleaning it with the wrong things.
3. I was not keeping it covered properly.
We are often taught to keep wounds uncovered, expose them to oxygen to ensure proper healing.
I’ve learned this is not always correct.
Sometimes the things that are in the atmosphere surrounding the wound, depending on the depth of the wound, can harm it more than help it.
So, exposing it or giving it time to “breathe” as many would say, is not the best thing for a slow healing wound.
I had two very serious infections in my wound because I was following what I thought I knew about the wound healing process.
Inflammation and exposure were the key contributing factors to my wound healing problem.
So the first thing the doctor did was COVER the wound up, and he instructed me to keep it covered at ALL times, even in my home I had to keep it sealed tight.
Not only did I have to keep it covered, but I had to apply pressure to my leg. Due to the swelling surrounding the wound, I had to wear a special compression sleeve over the portion of my leg where the slow healing wound was present.
In about a week and a half , due to my compliance with the doctors strict instructions, my wound was healing in a miraculous way!
Sometimes our emotional wounds are so deep, so infected and so inflamed, we believe healing will never come.
That could not be any further from the truth. No matter how deep, infected, painful and inflamed the wound may be, healing is available.
Sometimes pressure has to be applied, a little incision and debridement might need to take place, a prescription for an antibiotic may need to be administered, but healing CAN and WILL take place.
To experience the healing I desired, what I needed to do was STOP using old remedies to fix a complex wound.
I needed to stop exposing the wound to the elements, even the elements in my own house , and I needed to apply pressure.
We have to apply the same tactics to our emotional wounds.
1. We have to stop going to what worked in the past. Familiarity is not always the right way to go. Yes it worked in the past, but this is a new level of pain and it’s going to take a more complex approach to healing.
2. Stop exposing yourself to what only brings harm. You might not believe it’s harmful, but it is. It looks innocent on the outside, but it has properties in it that is designed to keep your wound oozing with infection. That thing is only a bandage, you want something that is going to last. Something that will guarantee healing.
3. Apply the pressure! Talk about that pain! I know it hurts when you speak on it, but once you bring it to the surface a solution can materialize, and true healing can come forth.
Go to THERAPY! Go to THERAPY! Go to THERAPY!
I know it’s uncomfortable, but you need it if you want to heal. Treat yourself well even before the year ends, and make that appointment.
There is nothing wrong with talking it out with a mental health provider. It doesn’t mean that you’re “crazy” or “weak”! It really shows your strength when you decide to make that step.
You are STRONG!
The proof of your strength is you’ve been living life with this gaping wound and most of the people you encounter on a daily basis don’t even realize it. Now, that’s strength! Use that same strength and apply the pressure to the wound, confront it and get past it.
Note this, healing cannot take place without us actually realizing the wound is a problem.
I thought I was healing pretty well but when my leg began to ooze I realized I needed another pair of eyes on it.
Not just any eyes, the eyes of a wound specialists.
It was my second infection and I knew that wasn’t good at all. I knew if I didn’t want another infection to come, I needed to see a specialist.
It looked like my familiar remedies were working on the outside, but it was an infection under the first later of my skin brewing.
My familiar remedies only helped the surface of my wound. For true healing to take place I needed something more complex.
Have you ever gotten out of a relationship with someone who hurt you beyond recognition, and as time went on you gave relationships another try only to realize you were just entertaining the same spirit?
You entertained it because it was familiar…
STOP the familiar, it only causes us to expose ourselves to people and things that have the potential to make our wounds toxic.
Sweetness, I want us to get total healing.
I want us to find joy, not just happiness.
I want us to soar in life, not just maintain and cope.
You deserve to be healed, whole and healthy inside and out.
Lets take the journey to wholeness together by doing the following things:
1. Admit that your wound is deeper than you realized, it’s oozing into every area of your life. It’s distracting you from moving forward, you can’t make a clear decision. You’re always angry, you’re becoming hard to be around.
2. Stop exposing your wound to the familiar places and faces. COVER yourself, get away from the familiar. I know you think its’s safe, but it’s not. They’re not equipped to help you heal. Baby, they have gaping wounds as well, that’s why yours is always infected.
3. Talk to someone! Get if off your chest! Make the therapy appointment that you’ve been contemplating.
4. Pray! Pray! Pray! Ask God to give you peace with yourself about the part you may have played in your slow healing wound. Ask God to give you peace within yourself if you are suffering from a wound that was inflicted on you by someone who was supposed to protect you.
Ask God to show you what healed looks like, and FOLLOW hard after that!
Seek the Ultimate Specialist through His word
Psalms 147:3 He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me.
Matthew 11: 28–30 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Isaiah 54:4 Do not be afraid, you won’t be put to shame; do not fear disgrace, for you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more
I love you and I promise you I am praying for your total healing!
It is getting free time!
You have SO much to do! You have SO much to offer!
It would be a shame if you never realized your full potential all because of a wound that never healed properly.
Healing is possible for you!
