AB Woundcare

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AB Woundcare Specialised wound care in your home, our rooms, or your care facility. Serving Boksburg and the East Rand. Medical aid documentation supplied.

Private Nurse Practitioner, SANC registered, with over two decades of critical care experience.

Saturday morning question, and it helps me plan. Which part of the Garden Route are you in?Mossel Bay, Hartenbos, Little...
10/10/2026

Saturday morning question, and it helps me plan. Which part of the Garden Route are you in?

Mossel Bay, Hartenbos, Little Brak, Great Brak, Tergniet, Reebok, Dana Bay, Vleesbaai, or somewhere else? Put your town in the comments. Every reply tells me where the people who need this page actually live.

And because a Saturday post should give you something to do, here is a job for the weekend: build a proper home wound kit. Most kitchen drawer "first aid" is out of date and half useless.

What goes in

🔹 Saline sachets or sterile water for rinsing
🔹 Sterile non-stick dressings in two or three sizes
🔹 Sterile gauze swabs
🔹 A crepe bandage or two
🔹 Hypoallergenic tape (paper tape is kindest to fragile skin)
🔹 Disposable gloves
🔹 Blunt-tipped scissors and a clean pair of tweezers
🔹 A roll of cling film, for burns
🔹 A thermometer
🔹 A list of emergency numbers on the lid. From a cell phone, 112 always works

What comes out

🔸 Cotton wool, because the fibres shed into wounds
🔸 Anything with an expired date
🔸 Hydrogen peroxide and strong antiseptics
🔸 Old ointment tubes that have been open for years

Check the kit twice a year and keep one in the car and one at the caravan or holiday house.

Want to be first to know when we open in Mossel Bay in March? WhatsApp the word MOSSEL to 082 824 7994. It is free, and it is only ever about the practice.

Afrikaans is welkom. Skryf gerus in Afrikaans.

Follow the page and share this with a neighbour. They have the same drawer.

📞 082 824 7994

What you do in the first ten minutes after a cut decides a lot of what happens in the next ten days. Here is the whole r...
09/10/2026

What you do in the first ten minutes after a cut decides a lot of what happens in the next ten days. Here is the whole routine, in order.

1. Stop the bleeding. Press firmly with a clean cloth or gauze and hold it. Do not lift it to check every 30 seconds, because every peek restarts the bleeding. Raise the limb if you can. Ten minutes of steady pressure stops most cuts.

2. Rinse it properly. Hold it under a running tap for a few minutes. Running water lifts dirt out better than any spray or wipe. Remove grit gently. Do not scrub.

3. Skip the peroxide. No hydrogen peroxide, no neat Dettol, no methylated spirits. They damage the tissue you need to heal. Clean water is enough for most wounds.

4. Cover it. A clean, non-stick dressing or plaster. A covered, slightly moist wound heals faster and cleaner than one left open.

5. Think about tetanus. If your last tetanus injection was more than ten years ago, or more than five years ago and the wound is dirty or deep, ask for a booster.

Get it seen the same day if

🔸 Bleeding has not slowed after ten minutes of firm pressure
🔸 The edges gape open, or you can see fat or deeper tissue. Wounds that need stitches are best closed within a few hours
🔸 It is a deep puncture, or something is still stuck in it
🔸 It is an animal or human bite
🔸 You cannot get the dirt out
🔸 You are diabetic, on blood thinners, or have a weak immune system

Screenshot this or save the post. You will want it when it is your child, your partner or your grandchild bleeding.

Follow the page for more everyday first aid and proper wound care advice. Free, and it always will be.

📞 082 824 7994

Summer is coming to the Garden Route, and for anyone with diabetes it brings a danger nobody mentions: the ground itself...
08/10/2026

Summer is coming to the Garden Route, and for anyone with diabetes it brings a danger nobody mentions: the ground itself.

If your feet have lost some feeling, you cannot tell that the sand, the tar or the boardwalk is hot enough to burn. You walk across it. The skin blisters. You feel nothing until the evening, or the next morning, when someone sees it.

A burn on a numb foot in a diabetic is one of the slowest, most stubborn wounds to heal.

Beach and holiday rules for diabetic feet

🔹 No bare feet on the beach, the tar or the boardwalk. Not for "just a minute to the water"
🔹 Wear closed water shoes or sturdy sandals with a secure back. Flip-flops rub between the toes, and that is where blisters start
🔹 Dry between every toe after swimming, every time. Damp skin breaks down
🔹 Check your feet at night on holiday, when routines slip. Soles, heels, between toes
🔹 Watch for sand in shoes and shells in the sand. A grain of grit against a numb foot all afternoon is enough
🔹 Sunscreen on the tops of your feet. Sunburn on skin that already heals poorly is a real wound
🔹 Never sit with your feet on a hot car floor or dashboard
🔹 Test bath and shower water with your elbow or a thermometer, not your foot

The rule that covers everything: if you cannot feel it, you cannot trust it. Let your eyes do the job your feet no longer can.

Any blister, redness or break in the skin, even a small one, gets seen within 24 hours. A holiday is not a reason to wait.

Tag someone in your family with diabetes who is planning the December holidays. This is the reminder they need before they pack.

Follow for free advice like this, and to see us in Mossel Bay from March.

📞 082 824 7994

"Can I shower with it? Can I sleep with it? Can I go to my daughter's for the weekend?"Those are the questions people ar...
07/10/2026

"Can I shower with it? Can I sleep with it? Can I go to my daughter's for the weekend?"

Those are the questions people are too shy to ask when they are sent home on a wound pump. Here are the answers that apply to most people. Always check the specifics with the nurse looking after you, and with the instructions that came with your device.

Moving around. Yes. The pump is portable and comes with a carry bag. Keep it upright, keep the tubing clear of doors and wheels, and do not drag it by the tube.

Sleeping. Put the pump on the bedside table or hang it on the bed frame. Make sure the tubing runs freely and you are not lying on it. A tube trapped under your leg is the number one cause of night-time alarms.

Washing. Most people wash with a sponge and keep the dressing completely dry. If your nurse has shown you how to disconnect for a shower, follow exactly what you were shown and get the pump back on quickly. Never soak in a bath, and never go swimming with the dressing on.

Time off the pump. As a rule of thumb, therapy should not be switched off for more than about two hours in a day. If it has been off longer, phone rather than just switching it back on.

Travelling. Short trips are often fine, but plan them:

🔹 Charge the battery fully, and take the charger 🔹 Take spare canisters, a spare dressing kit and the phone numbers 🔹 Secure the pump in the car so it cannot fall 🔹 Tell your nurse before you go, not after

Going out. Wear loose clothing over the dressing so nothing rubs on the tube or the drape.

Most people who are on NPWT are surprised at how normal life stays. It is a treatment you live with, not a hospital stay you endure.

Is somebody you know about to go home with a wound pump? Share this so they read it before the first night.

Follow the page for more plain-language wound care, now and once we are in Mossel Bay.

📞 082 824 7994

Skin tears are one of the most common wounds I see in older people, and one of the most mishandled. A knock on a door fr...
06/10/2026

Skin tears are one of the most common wounds I see in older people, and one of the most mishandled. A knock on a door frame, a bump on a chair arm, a carer's grip, and a flap of skin peels back like wet tissue paper.

In a coastal town with many retired people, this one is worth knowing.

What to do when it happens

🔹 Stop the bleeding with gentle pressure through a clean cloth or gauze, and raise the arm or leg. Skin tears often bleed more in people on blood thinners, so give it a full ten minutes
🔹 Rinse gently with saline or clean running water. Do not scrub
🔹 Ease the flap back over the wound if it is still there, using a gloved finger or a damp cotton bud. Do not stretch it, and do not cut it off
🔹 Cover with a non-stick dressing. A silicone-faced dressing is ideal because it sticks to the dressing but not to fragile skin
🔹 Draw an arrow on the dressing so whoever changes it knows which way to peel it off. Peel low and slow, in the direction your nurse shows you

What not to use: plasters, adhesive strips, or tape directly on the skin. They grip fragile skin harder than the wound holds together, and they tear it again when removed.

Leave it alone. A skin tear dressing is usually left in place for several days rather than changed every day. Ask your nurse how long.

Get it seen the same day if the bleeding will not stop, the flap has turned dark or grey, the area is swelling or getting hotter, or you cannot tell what to do.

Preventing the next one

🔹 Moisturise arms and legs twice a day. Dry skin tears far more easily
🔹 Pad sharp furniture corners and bed rails
🔹 Good lighting at night, and clear pathways
🔹 Never lift someone by their arms or wrists
🔹 Long sleeves and soft sleeve protectors for people who bruise easily

Do you look after a parent or a spouse with paper-thin skin? Send this to a sibling. Free advice like this is what the page is for.

📞 082 824 7994

Big news, and I wanted you to hear it from me first.From March 2027, AB Woundcare is moving to Mossel Bay and the surrou...
05/10/2026

Big news, and I wanted you to hear it from me first.

From March 2027, AB Woundcare is moving to Mossel Bay and the surrounding area.

Hartenbos, Little Brak River, Great Brak River, Tergniet, Reebok, Dana Bay and everyone in between. That is where the practice is headed, and I am looking forward to being part of the community.

To everyone who has followed this page from Boksburg and the East Rand, thank you. You are the reason it exists, and the advice stays open to you as well.

Here is the promise, and it does not change. Between now and March, and after we arrive, this page gives you free, practical wound care advice. Real information you can use the same day. No jargon, no sales pitch on every post.

Three things that are true in any town

🔹 A wound heals best when it is kept clean, covered and moist. Letting it "air out" slows it down 🔹 Hydrogen peroxide and strong antiseptics damage the cells that are trying to heal you 🔹 A wound that has not improved in two weeks, or is not healed in four, needs a proper assessment. It is never "just slow"

What is coming over the next five weeks: diabetic foot care, negative pressure wound therapy explained, skin tears, leg swelling, burns, how to care for someone at home, and what a good wound care plan should include. Plus the first aid you actually need living on the coast.

Two ways to help us get ready

1️⃣ Follow the page, so the tips reach you 2️⃣ Comment your town below, so we know where you are

Want to be told first when we open? WhatsApp the word MOSSEL to 082 824 7994.

Afrikaans is welkom. Skryf gerus in Afrikaans, ek antwoord jou ook so.

📞 082 824 7994 🌐 www.abwoundcare.co.za

Antonet Brand Private Nurse Practitioner · Practice No. 0998354

Another two weeks of wound care tips, and it comes down to this. When a wound will not close, it is almost always one of...
03/10/2026

Another two weeks of wound care tips, and it comes down to this. When a wound will not close, it is almost always one of these holding it back.

1. Pressure that has not been relieved. The most common one, and the most ignored. New tissue cannot survive being crushed daily.

2. Blood supply. Tissue that is not receiving oxygen and nutrients cannot rebuild, no matter what you put on it.

3. Infection. Sometimes obvious, sometimes quietly sitting in the wound bed slowing everything down.

4. Blood sugar. Uncontrolled glucose impairs healing and the immune response at the same time.

5. Not enough protein. Your body builds new tissue out of what you eat. Poor intake is an invisible brake, and it is common in older patients with small appetites.

6. The wrong dressing. Too wet, too dry, or a product that suited the wound a month ago and does not suit it now.

7. Dead tissue left in place. Nothing heals underneath it.

8. Smoking, which narrows the vessels feeding the wound.

9. Repeated trauma. Knocking it, scratching it, or ripping dressings off dry.

10. Nobody reassessing it. A wound getting the same treatment for months without anyone asking whether it is working.

Here is the thing. Almost every item on that list can be changed. That is the genuinely hopeful part. Wounds that have been stuck for a year often start moving within weeks once the real obstacle is found and dealt with.

If you have been living around a wound and had quietly accepted that it is just how things are now, it is worth one assessment to find out which of those ten is holding it up.

Two things that help this page reach the people who need it

1️⃣ Follow if you have not yet 2️⃣ Share this with one person dealing with a wound, caring for someone, or living with diabetes

And keep the questions coming. Every one of them turns into a post that helps somebody else.

📞 082 824 7994 🌐 www.abwoundcare.co.za

Antonet Brand Private Nurse Practitioner · Practice No. 0998354

The other half of wound care is paperwork, and it is where a lot of families lose money they did not need to lose.Advanc...
02/10/2026

The other half of wound care is paperwork, and it is where a lot of families lose money they did not need to lose.

Advanced dressings and negative pressure therapy are expensive. Medical aids will fund them, but only when the clinical case is properly made. A rejected claim is very often a documentation problem, not a treatment problem.

What a scheme is looking for

🔹 A clinical motivation letter explaining what the wound is, why standard care is not enough, and what the proposed treatment will achieve
🔹 Objective measurements taken over time. Length, width, depth, and whether those numbers are moving
🔹 Photographic records, dated, showing progress or the lack of it 🔹 The treatment history. What has already been tried, for how long, and what happened
🔹 Expected duration and review points, so the scheme knows this is not open-ended
🔹 Correct product and procedure codes

The two things that sink claims most often

Applying afterwards. Advanced therapy usually needs pre-authorisation. Starting first and motivating later puts you on the back foot.

No baseline. If nobody measured and photographed the wound at the start, there is nothing to prove it has stalled, and "it is not getting better" is an opinion rather than evidence.

This is why every wound I treat is measured and photographed from the first visit, with your consent. It is not admin for its own sake. It is what turns a request into an approved claim.

If your claim has been rejected, it is often worth resubmitting with a proper motivation rather than accepting it. Message me if you are stuck on one.

Follow the page. Half of what makes wound care work is the part nobody talks about.

📞 082 824 7994 ✉️ [email protected]

If someone offers to bandage your leg tightly and they have not checked your circulation first, stop them.Compression is...
01/10/2026

If someone offers to bandage your leg tightly and they have not checked your circulation first, stop them.

Compression is the single most effective treatment for a venous leg ulcer. Those ulcers happen because blood is pooling in the leg instead of returning to the heart. Compression pushes it back up. Without compression, most venous ulcers simply will not heal, and dressing them for months achieves very little.

But it depends entirely on one question: how well is blood getting into that leg?

If the arteries supplying the leg are narrowed, compression squeezes an already-starved limb. That can cause serious tissue damage. This is why a proper assessment of the arterial supply comes before the first bandage goes on, not after.

The same swollen, ulcerated leg can need compression or need it withheld. You cannot tell by looking, and neither can I. It has to be tested.

What else helps a venous leg ulcer

🔹 Elevating the leg above hip height when you are sitting, genuinely above, not on a low stool
🔹 Walking, because the calf muscle is what pumps the blood upward
🔹 Ankle exercises when you cannot walk much, circles and flexes while seated
🔹 Moisturising the surrounding skin, which is usually dry and fragile
🔹 Wearing the compression once it is prescribed, including on the good days

The part patients hate hearing: compression is for life in most cases, not just until the ulcer closes. Stopping when it heals is the most common reason it comes back.

If you have a leg ulcer and have never had your circulation properly assessed, message me. That is the starting point, not the dressing.

Know someone with a leg that has been bandaged for months with no progress? Send them this.

Healing a diabetic foot ulcer is only half the job. The other half starts the day it closes.International diabetic foot ...
30/09/2026

Healing a diabetic foot ulcer is only half the job. The other half starts the day it closes.

International diabetic foot guidance reports that roughly four in ten healed ulcers return within the first year. Not because the healing failed, but because the reason it happened in the first place is usually still there.

Think of a healed ulcer as a scar under pressure. That new skin is thinner and weaker than the skin around it, and it is sitting on exactly the spot that broke down before. The nerve damage has not reversed. The pressure point has not moved. The shoe is often the same shoe.

What keeps it closed

🔹 Footwear that was made for the problem. If you have had an ulcer, standard shoes are no longer good enough. Proper offloading footwear or a custom insole moves the load away from that spot permanently
🔹 The daily check, for life. The place it happened before is the place to check first, every day
🔹 Callus taken seriously. Hard skin building over an old ulcer site is pressure announcing itself. Have it managed professionally, never with a blade or corn remover at home
🔹 Blood sugar control, which affects the tissue's ability to hold up under load
🔹 A check-up schedule, not just an appointment when something goes wrong

The mindset that works. Patients who stay ulcer-free treat it like a long-term condition they manage, the same way they manage the diabetes itself. The ones who treat the healing as the finish line are the ones I see again.

If your ulcer has healed and nobody has talked to you about keeping it that way, that conversation is overdue.

👉 Share this with someone who has been through a foot ulcer. Staying healed is the part nobody explains.

Address

Boksburg
1459

Opening Hours

Monday 07:00 - 16:00
Tuesday 07:00 - 16:00
Wednesday 07:00 - 16:00
Thursday 07:00 - 16:00
Friday 07:00 - 16:00

Telephone

+27828247994

Website

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