Sat Chim and his Abcess

Sar Chim is an older Cambodian guy who is actually a long time friend of Srey Crieat and this is how we came into contact with him.

He turned up at Srey Crieat house whilst we were visiting her and looked in a very sorry condition, his left hand swollen and obviously infected. He was in a lot of pain. On examination his hand and wrist were warm to the touch and he was unable to move his hand or fingers. He had a large swelling on his wrist that appeared to be some sort of abcess. The history given by his son was that he had been like this for almost a year and it had recently become worse to the point where he was unable to sleep or work. With his permission we probed the abcess with a needle hoping to encourage it to drain but to no avail. A small incision was made but again the abcess failed to drain as it was obviously encapsulated. Rather than deal wish this further it was decided to take Sar Chim to see a Doctor friend of ours for an opinion.

Was seen by the Doctor and we finally succeeded in draining the abcess, quite a painful procedure but Sar Chim was much relieved. This left him with a 2 inch sinus in his wrist that will need to be packed regularly and we have taken on that job. He was given some analgesics and on our next visit was found to be very happy and talkative, and extreme change from his previous demeanor. He told me that he had had his first good nights sleep in 3 months.

Sar chim will be getting visits probably for 6 weeks until we can get that sinus to heal properly with getting infected again. Still waiting on tests done on the mater removed from his wrist. He is much more comfortable now as you can imagine.