I Have a Wound That Just Won’t Heal. What Should I Do?

Wounds come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Whether you cut yourself on a kitchen knife, get road rash from a bike fall, have an incision from a surgical procedure, or develop an ulcer from diabetes, your body has what it needs to heal itself. 

Your body goes through an amazing healing process when you have a wound, and within a few days or weeks, your injury should look significantly better. However, if it seems like your wound is sticking around and just won’t heal properly, you may be dealing with a chronic wound. 

At Clover Internal Medicine Associates in Fort Worth, Texas, our team, led by Elaine Phuah, DO, MBA, FACOI, and Leon Tio, DO, MA, FACOI, offers advanced wound care to help the healing process along. 

This month’s blog focuses on what the wound healing timeline should look like and when it’s time to seek professional care for your injury. 

The stages of wound healing

No matter how you incur your wound, your body’s healing process is the same. Let’s take a look at each step in detail.

Hemostasis stage

During this first stage, your body has one goal: stop the bleeding. It does this by forming clots to seal the break in the blood vessel walls and keep blood from continually flowing out. This typically only takes a few minutes. 

Inflammatory stage

The second thing your body does is clean and stabilize the wound by getting rid of bacteria and creating a barrier. Your blood vessels expand to allow maximum blood flow to the wound, white blood cells are sent to destroy bacteria, and skin cells develop rapidly across the wound. 

You may feel redness and swelling around the wound area and see a clear liquid form around the borders of the wound. This simply means the inflammatory stage is working, and it may last 4-6 weeks. 

Proliferative stage

The proliferative stage sees a continual uptick in cell growth as your body works on closing the wound. You may see some new tissue growth over your wound that’s pink or red in color and uneven in texture. This stage can last anywhere from 4-24 days.

Maturation stage 

After the proliferative stage, your body keeps working on strengthening the new tissue during the maturation stage. It may take several months or even years to continually heal the skin. 

Keep in mind that even though your body has what it needs to heal itself, you can help the healing process by keeping your wound clean and hydrated. Cover the wound area with a bandage and apply antiseptic creams and moisturizers to the skin barrier often. 

Signs your wound isn’t healing properly 

If your wound is taking a long time to heal or isn’t going through the proper stages of healing, you may have an infection. When your wound gets infected, your body starts working on fighting the infection rather than healing the wound. 

These are some other indicators other than slow healing that your wound might be infected:

• Long-lasting swelling and redness
• The wound is hot to the touch
• The wound has a foul odor
• Tenderness and increasing pain
• Darkening skin around the wound

If you notice any of these symptoms, seek care with our Clover Internal Medicine Associates team right away. Infections can lead to a blood infection, or sepsis, which can be life-threatening if not treated promptly. 

For expert wound care, look no further than our team at Clover Internal Medicine Associates. Schedule an appointment with us by calling our office or booking online today.