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They initially thought it was advanced venous-stasis, a condition which normally afflicts the elderly and not people in their late 20s (when I first developed these problems) or early 30s (like this latest recurrence) or diabetics (been tested multiple times and I'm not diabetic). Excessive weight can lead to the development of such a condition, but I'm a trim 175 pounds, right within the proper range for 6'2" height, and diet-wise they've determined that I eat well (heh, when I told my mom that, she refused to believe it...do mothers ever think otherwise?).
They've run every test they can think of on me. I've been to an Oncology Clinic to be tested for every possible type of rare cancer. I've had dozens of blood tests run on me to check for obscure diseases and rare blood or clotting conditions, been tested for HIV, tested for everything short of some condition that afflicts pregnant women (they didn't deem it likely I'd develop a disease like that *grin* ). I've had countless biopsies done, many to ascertain the rate of wound infection, which has not been a problem for the last six months (an infection I developed in November 2004 was so bad they had to put me on the strongest antibiotics known to medical science) which is good since every one of the infections has set my healing back tremendously.
I've had venous and arterial Doppler scans run on both legs from my toes to my groin and surprisingly the blood flow is excellent. In fact, in the worst of my two feet, the blood flow is even better than in the other. They have no idea what is causing this problem which is why treating it has been so difficult.
They've used two different types of skin grafts (one surgical, one not), a variety of different medicines including steroid treatments to do everything from increase my body's ability to regenerate tissue to shutting down my immune system to prevent it from slowing tissue growth. Nothing showed any last results. The average turn-around for patients at the Wound Clinic is 3-4 months to full recovery. I'm presently in the 22nd straight month. Aside from some old guy with advanced venous-stasis, I'm the longest patient they've ever had in their 12+ years of operation.
Most of the techniques used in wound treatment today were developed by plastic surgeons to repair damage to tissue from accidents, fires, etc. as well as to heal reconstructed tissue following surgery. To give you an idea how effective this stuff and the clinic normally is, they had a woman come in with a hole in her toe deep enough to make the bone visible. She smoked a pack a day and had obviously been doing it for a long time since her voice sounded like the synthesized voice of Stephen Hawking only it was her own voice! She told the doctors and nurses she wouldn't stop smoking and they fully believed she'd probably not even come back to the clinic a second time, much less show any signs of success with the treatment they tried because smoking not only impedes tissue regeneration, it can reverse it (I was told years ago that if I were a smoker, I'd be a double-amputee by now given my wounds). Well, after 3 weeks of the treatment they'd prescribed, not only was she better, but the wound had closed completely! Even the doctor was surprised because given her smoking, there shouldn't have been any change, much less so quick a recovery. But these treatments today are incredibly effective on 99.9999999999% of patients (yeah, you can guess who the spoiler in that figure is) barring the onset of diseases like HIV. Even then, they probably have some success in treating the wounds even if the disease can't be stopped.
The situation with the elderly smoker is especially frustrating for me given that I have never smoked in my life (I avoid even being around smokers) and was doing the total bedrest now for over a year. Now that I'm finally showing some progress, we (myself, the doctors, and the nurses) have all come to the conclusion that the bandages which were sticking were doing too much traumatic damage to the tissue because since they started using the transfer, I've seen results (in fact, just the transfer alone on one ankle and a $400 per application treatment on the other showed that the transfer was more effective despite costing only a fraction of the other). Normally this sort of thing wouldnt' be a factor since all the dressings they used prior to the transfer are also supposed to be non-sticking (and I'm the only patient they'd ever heard of some of the bandages sticking to) and had never been a factor in preventing recovery before. As I joke with my nurses, leave it to me to be difficult beyond any other.
Anyway, this week's appointment went off without a hitch. Still showing progress and so their continuing this treatment which seems to finally be working. Thank you to you all again for your thoughts. It is much appreciated.
Take care,
Jason
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