Advice for wound care...

Over 2 months ago I hurt my leg when I dropped a heavy bench seat from my minivan on it. The obvious harm to my leg was the blunt force trauma (for lack of better description lol) from the weight of the seat. The secondary and very small issue was that the seat kind of skipped down my leg and in 3 small spots it broke the skin. There was very little blood; just enough to bead up and then clot in place..not even enough to run down the leg or anything. As my leg immediately swelled and bruised I treated that before even being concerned about the small scrapes on my leg.

Fast forward 5 weeks. The areas where the skin had broken has scabbed over but is becoming increasingly sore. Bruising and swelling is long gone although it's pretty obvious there is still swelling "under" the area when you run your hand over it..but the overt swelling that you could see with naked eye is gone. Each day the redness is extended out further. At first I thought it was just new skin or slight bruising but it became obvious this was infection. I am a bit of a wimp and never actually touched the area for fear I'd pass out..but got up the nerve and as soon as I felt around the edge the scab area immediately became gooping pus (sorry for the grossness ) I went right away to the doc and was given a prescription for antibiotics and sent on my way. Took them faithfully for the 7 days and moved on with my life

Suddenly about a week after finishing those meds I woke in the night to burning excruciating pain radiating out from the spot on my leg. I got up and turned on the lights and there were red streaks coming out from the wound. I knew I was in rough shape and headed to the doctor again in the morning. He put me on a much more potent antibiotic for a 10 day period and sent me for an xray concerned the infection could be in the bone. He also referred me for bloodwork re: diabetes, autoimmune dysfunction etc. This was now 7 weeks after the injury had occured. The xray came back normal thankfully.

Fast forward another week. I'm now on day 7 of the heavy duty antibiotics and basically wishing death would take me....soooo tired and drained and physically just blah. Wound still bad, pussing, sore, red and getting bigger each day. It started out the size of the head on a straight pin and is now the size of the tip of my pinky finger. My leg in a good diameter around the wound is completely numb...as in I touch it and can't feel it and my leg is swollen like it's retaining water (my socks are leaving dents in my legs as if they're 10 sizes too small but they're very baggy loose socks).

I head to regular family doctor for the bloodwork requisition and he checks the wound and adds a third antibiotic to take alongside the other. He tells me it will "take longer for this wound to heal as it's a puncture wound and fairly deep which can trap bacteria easily"....the problem is it was NOT a puncture injury. The wound has widened and deepened on its own. There is a flat smooth piece of metal (free of rust or debris) on the bottom side of the van seat, not a sharp or pointy piece of metal. Anyhow, I will be getting the bloodwork results tomorrow at my next appt with him.

The problem is, this wound is still not healing. it is still this big open round sore on my leg and it's really scaring me. We are now at week 9 going into 10. I was cleaning everyday with saline wound wash and then packing the wound with saline soaked gauze to keep it clean. Once the pus stopped I kept the wound dry for a few days under bandaging and then left the bandaging off for the past week. A scab grew and it looked like it might actually be getting better..but then a few days ago I started getting the stabbing pains back in that area and the scab was "leaking" pus again. The redness is not as bad as it was but not totally receded either (although that could be fresh skin, i'm not sure at this point my leg is just gross to look at. A friend suggested getting the scab wet so it would fall off again to allow the pus to drain and then starting the process all over again which I've been doing but it still looks as nasty as week 5 even though there's been scabbing and what I thought was healing going on for the past 7-10 days.

I'm not sure at this point what to do with this mess....keep it wet...keep it dry....bandage, no bandage? What the heck. I'm 38 years old and have never had an infected wound much less one that wouldn't heal. I'm not a dirty person...that bathes infrequently or anything like that. The swollen numb leg is so scary and I feel the doctors i've seen 3 times now have been very unconcerned. I'm concerned I could lose my leg or something equally scary

Please advise how I should properly treat this open wound as the doc's suggestions have done nothing. Thanks

Michelle

FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

Peroxide diluted with water. topically
Drink baking soda in water 2x daily
topical collodial silver.
eat raw organic honey
sleep, alot.
Hot dry compresses(flat glass bottle with hot waterr inside)

SEE A DOCTOR!!!

Go to another doctor and get a second/third opinion...

Why would anyone ask for medical advice on ATS instead of say a .....medical forum?

FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

RAW organic honey topically
when goin to sleep cover body and infected leg especially with many blankets as to induce artificial fever, do not over-heat or you will die.
Drink LOTS and LOTS if distilled water.
Eat organic garlic.
SMILE LOTS.
Make love 2x weekly at least

You definitely developed cellulitis. Should be taken care of by the antibiotics.

Since it is taking so long to heal and with all the side effects(some are probably caused by the heavy doses of antibiotics) My thought is a heavy metal wound.Wounds caused by tools made out of beryllium and other heavy metals take a long time to heal. I have no idea why the brackets and what not on your van would be made out of heavy metals, and I am not saying they are. This is just what popped into my head.

I am not a doctor or any other type of licensed care provider.

i would recommend bugging your doctor every freakin day though. And as has already been said go get a 3rd and 4th opinion, from actual doctors.

If an infection is that deep and not healing I would think they'd have you on i.v. antibiotics. I'd be concerned about antibiotic resistance the more oral antibiotics you take. It it were me I wouldn't mess around, I'd get to the hospital.

reply to post by dashen


Dashen, what is collodial silver? I've seen it mentioned in a few other forums. Actually never mind I'll look it up myself. And as for your second post. Did my husband pay you for the lovemaking line?!! LOL Thanks for bringing a smile and laugh

miley, I did post in a medical forum a few weeks back and the only advice I received repeatedly was to go see my doctor. (after telling them I had already seen two doctors at that point). On the topic of getting 2nd/3rd opinions...I have as I stated in my post seen 3 different doctors about it now....I guess I can go for a fourth opinion. I wasn't necessarily looking for medical advice at this point and I didn't really make it clear in my post sorry. I feel like after subjecting myself to three rounds of prescriptions that did nothing but make me sick and tired I was looking more for some "home" remedies or homeopathic ideas I guess. ATS has a HUGE user base and this is the "health and wellness" forum. I figured posting here was just about as good as posting on a less used medical forum anyhow. Not to mention that there's such an eclectic group of people here with many life experiences that someone might have a "magic" solution for me

Michelle

Sounds like cellulitis to me, however, you could also have a MRSA infection with it....If you are a diabetic or have peripheral vascular disease it could take much longer to heal. I would call the doctor office to have them tell you which type of wound dressings to do. Usually wet to dry wound dressings are good with normal saline or sterile water if you are packing the wound. Also, you might not be doing it correctly and reintroducing other bacterias. You should always wear gloves when dealing with wound changes. Please call your doctor right away.
Since you are not running a fever I would not be too concerned at this time about be septic. Just watch it and pay attention. Keep your leg elevated as much as possible. Good Luck!

reply to post by Michelle129th


get a 2nd/3rd opinion ...
you did blood work, did they order a wound culture? if you were prescribed the wrong antibiotic it won't do much good. you could have an antibiotic resistant strain of ... well anything. (MRSA comes to mind)...
you've had 2 rounds of antibiotics that have NOT done the trick. essentially you've killed off the weak bacteria & left the resistant ones to thrive. if you are feeling bad physically (not localized to the initial injury) it could the beginning of sepsis.
at this point (if I were you) I would demand another set of blood cultures (x2) and that wound culture.
(honestly, I would "Almost" recommend a trip to ER/ Urgent care.)

I've seen colloidal silver work miracles over "western medicine", but right now isn't the time to fiddle with alternatives...

reply to post by Starwise


I am NOT A DOCTOR

MY wife has, and still is going through this.
Cellulitis, swelling and pain.. With a roller coaster of relapse symptoms. It goes away, comes back.
They are rotating her anti-biotics. the most effective in her case, have been old fashioned Sulfa based ones, and Doxicycline. They do suspect an MSRA, which is making it tough to completely control.
It all started with our little dog jumping off here lap, and scratching her leg.
They also checked her vitamin D levels...and they were low to the point of almost not measurable.
So she is taking prescription strength levels...As Vitamin D is known to be an aid to the immunological response.

Oh, and be careful with the overuse of Hydrogen peroxide...It will debride living and dead tissues. You want the living tissue to grow.

did the Dr culture the wound? If so what is the name of the infecting organism. If they didn't culture it well, at this stage all I can say is that it really should be done soon. It is your body. Ask questions..find out what the bug is, pressure if you have to but you have the right to know what they know. They take your money don't they? they need to communicate with you. Ask if they cultured it, and what antibiotic is being given, and be sure they tell you the side effects of those drugs or look them up yourself online. If they did culture and you are not improving with what you are taking, get yourself in there again. but if they are not totally open with you find yourself another Dr as soon as you can. If it has not been cultured. Demand one. If it has been cultured demand to know what the bug is and its dangers etc.

You should know now what the organism is that is in your leg. You should have a prognosis from the Dr as well.
DH

Bump
Checking up on Michele..
how are you doing?

Second bump, good as new yet?
Better than new?

Been here done this too many times....
I do not wish to scare you, but in my opinion you need to be very very scared, and on top of this. Listen to yourself! Believe in what you feel!
Email me

Guys thanks so much for all your concern. I had my appt with my regular doctor and the news was very good so I had forgotten about my post here...so sorry!

The visit to family doc went well. All of the blood work results came back negative...as in there is nothing wrong medically with me. The doctor gave me some good advice on dressing my leg and that has seemed to be paying off. It has turned a corner and the infection has finally given up! Barring some crazy condition that wouldn't show up in my blood work...it just was a wound that took it's time to heal. There is obviously some nerve damage in the area as around the actual area is still numb to the touch. The doctor feels that this will right itself and it won't be an issue but has told me to come back immediately if there are any other concerns.

I have never heard of, or experienced that in my life and I actually find that I'm a fairly quick healer. For whatever reason this time I just wasn't. Although, the scare of the possibility of problems with my leg, or worse....diabetes or something even more sinister has smartened me up and I'm being more careful about my diet. So I guess it was a lesson learned.....we all need to take good care of ourselves so we don't look back and think "If I'd only...."

Michelle