After yesterday’s surgery to remove the titanium rods from my right leg and ankle, I returned to Pillars with a Prevena Plus 125 attached to my new surgical dressing.
It is a small, battery-powered negative-pressure wound therapy machine. In plain English, it creates suction and pulls fluid away from the surgical incision.
The nerve block from surgery eventually wore off, and the pain became almost unbearable. The pain pills were barely touching it.
Then a nurse discovered that the tubing from the Prevena machine had become disconnected.
She reconnected it, but the machine still wasn’t pulling fluid. I asked ChatGPT whether there was a button that needed to be pressed after reconnecting the tubes.
There was.
ChatGPT walked me through checking the tubing, making sure the canister was seated correctly, opening the clamp, checking for kinks, and restarting the machine by holding down the power button.
The pump restarted.
The suction returned.
Fluid began moving away from my ankle again—and the pain started easing.
I also called the Prevena support number and reached a real human being named Burt. He patiently went through everything with me and confirmed that I had done it correctly.
Thanks to ChatGPT, I knew what to check.
Thanks to Burt, I knew I had checked it correctly.
And thanks to that little machine finally sucking again, I am no longer lying here wondering why the pain is completely out of control.
When the Prevena is working, it helps.
When it isn’t working, at least in my case, I hurt like hell.
Today I learned something important: sometimes the difference between terrible pain and manageable pain is one disconnected tube, one power button—and getting the right help at the right moment.
Thank you, ChatGPT.
And thank you, Burt.
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