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Old 08-04-2006, 01:45 PM   #17
prof1515
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Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Illinois
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I've had suggestions for everything from maggots to herbal medicines. As my doctor says, "We're way beyond maggots." My legs are bandaged constantly, with a four-layer wrap from my toes to my knees, except for that brief 30-60 minutes every Wednesday at the hospital when they remove them and clean the wounds before rewrapping. Sucks when it's warm out because they itch but there's no way to scratch with the bandages covering.

In response to the question of how I developed the wounds, the reason they thought it was venous-stasis is because it is like that condition in every way. I had ulcerations develop on both of my ankles (sort of like scabs right on the middle of the inside of the ankles). I developed the wounds when one of the ulcerations on my ankles caught on my sock and ripped off back in September of 2004. It was only a hole about the size of the fingernail on your little finger but inevitably it got infected and within a week was about the size of a thumbnail. Antibiotics took care of the infection but the wound wouldn't go away. My doctor recommended I go to the wound clinic at a hospital about 75 minutes away. Started going there and they began treatment on October 4.

By early November, the wound was half-healed but the same problem (sock catching on the ulceration) occured on my other ankle. They both were responding well when I got an infection in late November. Biopsies showed it to be an incredibly resistant infection. They put me on Zyvox, an antibiotic for which there is no known resistance to, for 3 weeks (about $2500 worth of antibiotics). Pretty potent stuff, I found myself alternating between puking my guts out and breaking into a cold sweat from the pain of the infection. Needless to say, that was one of the worst months of my life. The Zyvox did it's job, but the damage was done. The infection had caused the actual wounds to quadruple in size (at least) to about 7-9 centimeters in diameter each (with affected tissue about the size of the palm of a hand and the actual wound possessing a depth of about 1-2 cm into the ankle...scary to see a hole that size in one's foot).

A third wound opened on the outer part of my left ankle when the bandages caused a friction wound about the size of a thumbnail. With a third infection in February 2005, that friction wound turned into an open wound about 6 centimeters in diameter. The reason for all the infections was partially a response to the Prednisone treatments. Prednisone lowers the body's resistance to infection but also prevents the body from blocking tissue from growing more effectively. So, it was a gamble. Perhaps because the dosage just wasn't enough, the Prednisone didn't work the first time it was tried. Additionally, my wounds kept hypergranulating (new tissue growing in clumps rather than spreading to close the wound). This required application of silver nitrate to burn off the extra tissue. The second time they tried Prednisone, the higher dosage (December 2005 to May 2006 was 50 mg instead of 20 mg) seems to have done the trick. Coupled with the mepilex transfer bandages, which don't stick (all of the other "no-stick" bandages actually stuck to the wounds) and hence don't rip off good tissue with them when they're removed, the wounds are now closing properly and are about 3-5 centimeters in size.

Here's hoping infections stay at bay and the wounds continue to heal.

Take care,

Jason
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