Gel collapsed =(

I left freshly embedded samples in vacuum at 37 degrees over 2 days and of course they dried out =( Hydrogel lost around 400% of it's volume and now it's like 2mm thick firm coating the sample. I put it in PBS but it didn't recover. However, it still allows water solution to go through and the gel is not hard or fragile. Now I don't really know if I should proceed with cleaning or it's better to prepare new samples. If it were samples for let's say paraffin IHC I'd throw them out but with hydrogel maybe it's not so crucial?