We had a horrible “lake effect” snowstorm Wednesday, and the roads were covered with ice. I tried to keep my appointment with the wound specialist, but my car was sliding around (even did a 360), and I had to come back home.
So I called to reschedule, but they didn’t have an opening until the end of the month. No, by then my leg would have rotted off. So I spent all afternoon online and on the phone, trying to find another wound specialist in the area. After lots of dead ends, I finally found the Director of the Lower Extremity Wound Clinic at the Cleveland Clinic. Exactly what I was looking for!!! The next thing I remember was the scheduling person asking “Can you come in tomorrow?” YIPPEEEEE!
Well, my visit included not only the Director, but three nurses who each administered her own specialty . . . and all four of them working together. It turned out, my primary doctor had me doing things that actually made the infection worse. Now, I’ve got a regimen to perform every morning that include special pads containing colloidal silver (over $14 apiece), special sterile pads, two kinds of ointment and a tight stocking holding everything together . . . and no tape!
The best thing is that the doctor is a specialist in not only wound care, but also lower extremity peripheral artery disease, which I have due to my diabetes. So he’s treating me for the problems that underlie and exacerbate the wound.
So. I’m feeling much better about the care I’m getting now, and have to return in two weeks for some tests (the day before my cataract surgery).
But the doctor couldn’t explain the itching, which has covered my entire body now. I’m starting to see tiny red bumps where I’ve been scratching . . . and they look like what people get from bedbug bites. But my partner isn’t itching, and neither are the cats. Is it possible for bedbugs to attack one person, and leave everyone else alone? I know they attack during the night, so I’ve been getting up in the middle of the night to surprise them . . . but so far, nothing. I do feel like there are things crawling all over me, but there’s nothing there.
Ah, wound care and colloidal silver. I remember those days! My husband had surgery on his wrist but it wouldn’t heal, so after six (or maybe seven) surgeries, we got sent to a wound specialist and had to pack the wound with silver. Gross, but effective. I have a lot of hope this will work for you, too, panache! Get well.
That itching sounds like you’re allergic to something. Each time I develop a new allergy (I only need one more to have a complete series!) I get the rash and itching.
I’ve had those silver wound pads, and they are nothing short of miraculous. Yeah, they’re expensive, but they WORK.
Primary care physicians can’t be experts in everything, but they should be experts in when to refer a patient to a specialist. All things considered, the snowstorm was a blessing and it sounds like you’re finally getting the care that you need. If there’s anything you can learn from this is as a diabetic, don’t wait. Days can be the difference between keeping a limb or an amputation.
Yes, George Takei (Mr. Sulu from Star Trek) sat in this week on the Howard Stern show. He has bed bugs in his New York apartment and has bites on his body. His partner, who sleeps in the same bed every night, is either not bitten or unaffected by the bites. They had someone come in with a trained dog to confirm they have a bed bug infestation and are getting various treatments.
panache45, hope your recovery is going well. You are one of my favorite posters and I was aghast reading the first part of the thread and what you were going through! May the itching subside pronto.
It just be stress causing that itching and rash. It looked like I had little teeny blood blisters all over my hands and in a couple of other places when I was in a very stressful period of my life. The dermatologist took one look and called it. I’ve never experienced it again.
One of my daughters would get bitten by our pets’ fleas long before anyone else in the house ever noticed them. She had as many as 24 bites in one night. She’s our flea early-detector system. I wouldn’t be surprised if some people attracted bedbugs, too.
For the sake of fighting ignorance–what was that? I’ve had to deal with this sort of stuff with my sister, and I want to see if we might need a second opinion.
(and, yes, the reason I am asking is the whole insurance thing. We can’t afford unnecessary trips to the doctor.)
My primary doc had me tape “Telfa” pads over the wound, because I had been using “non-stick” and they were still sticking. I’m not sure why the Telfas were wrong, but the tape was doing a lot of harm, even though I used the least sticky tape I could find. The tape would compromise my epidermis, creating an opening for new infection. I was also cleaning the wound with hydrogen peroxide, unaware that I was killing the good microorganisms along with the bad.
In all fairness to my primary doc, he didn’t see the wound anywhere near its worst. I’d probably have gotten through this his way, if I had gotten another round of antibiotics. But after 3 rounds, I just didn’t want to keep taking them.
I’m trying to convince myself that I don’t have bedbugs. My house’s furnishings are very dense; I’m into so many things that every room has a lot of stuff in it. Getting rid of bedbugs would be a nightmare. I have to say that now, the itching is bothering me a lot more than the wound.
If I do have bedbugs, it raises the question of how I got them. I never sleep in any bed but my own. My partner, though, travels for business. Is it possible for him to be a “carrier,” yet be unaffected himself?
And again, guys, thanks so much for your good thoughts.
Unfortunately, yes. It is possible. Your partner could be bringing them back in a suitcase - according to the exterminator who checked our house. And, not everyone has reactions to them.
At least it wasn’t the flesh eating disease. When I first read the post ,that is what I feared. It starts at a little opening and goes nuts. That would have been terrible.
Were you using it full strength? We usually recommend against that for open wounds even with non-diabetics because it damages your own healthy tissue and provides which can then feed the infection. Same for betadine
IANA wound care RN
Panache, I just came off a round of antibiotics for oral surgery and I experienced the exact same itching you described, and I’ve been trying to figure out why. I finished the meds a day before the itching began. I thought at first it was dry skin and slathered myself with lotion. The itching was maddening. Then I got a rash that was pretty much all over my body but worse around my joints-elbows and knees, and tummy and hips. I thought I had aggravated it with the lotion and switched to straight aloe gel. That helped the itching but the rash is just now going away and today was the first day in about 3 that I wasn’t crazy with the itching. Reading that you had the same thing and recent history of antibiotic makes me think it was a reaction to the meds. I’ll note the type now for future reference. I never ever want to experience that level of itch again.
I have terrible problems with tape holding bandages on. It’s OK for a few hours, but anything longer and my skin starts having all sorts of problems. It is VERY annoying, and I don’t have healing issues.
I had a drug incorporating silver when I had my Legendary Abcess - it works wonderfully, but I think it’s the expense as much as anything else that makes them save it for the really serious stuff.
The rash might, indeed, be an allergic reaction to something. Have you tried Benadryl for the itching? That usually works wonders on allergic stuff, but if it does nothing then it’s probably not an allergy. Of course, whatever you doc says supersedes anything I have to say.
Meh, I don’t know about the Benadryl test. I have a pretty bad allergy to sulfa drugs and due to a mix-up wound up taking some a few years ago. Benadryl knocked me unconscious and dulled the itching ever so slightly but I was basically one giant hive from head to foot anyway. Zyrtec was much more effective. It was prescription-only then but I think you can get it over the counter now.
Things you don’t want your doctor saying: “Wow, I wish I had a med student in here! This is the worst Bactrim reaction I’ve ever seen! You must be miserable!” Uh, yeah, I am. :rolleyes:
Yes, I did say USUALLY - like everything else, some people are exceptions to the rule and don’t react as the majority do. And Benadryl tends to knock most people out, it’s actually used as an OTC sleep aid for that reason (a certain percentage, however, react the opposite way and Benadryl gets them all hyped up. Ah, diversity!)
My and Zyrtec don’t get along. It doesn’t make me drowsy, but it does mess me up. Some doctor gave me some telling me how much better it was than what I had been using. Not a good thing. It was like I was a zombie. A wide awake zombie, but a zombie nonetheless. Totally uncoordinated and spacey. Silly me, with the non-drowsy antibiotic I prepared to drive to work. I couldn’t even get out of my own driveway. I just couldn’t maneuver the car properly. At least I didn’t cause any damage (except to the flower bed I kept running over). It was like someone had stuck a two second time delay between me and reality, so my actions and perceptions were mismatched or something. The husband had to drive me to work for a few days, because that crap took forever to wear off.
So nope, no Zyrtec for me, thankyouverymuch. If it works for you, great.
But really, at a certain point Benadryl isn’t really going to help you - that’s when you need steroids. Those are amazing. Also have potentially scary side effects. Hence, doctors tend to be cautious about using them.
Hockey Monkey: Now that I think about it, the itching started after I ran out of antibiotics. Could this be a withdrawal symptom? I had been taking Cephalexin (Keflex). And your description of the itch as “maddening” is totally accurate. For me, it’s been a couple of weeks since the itching began, and it gets worse every day. I can’t even sleep anymore; I just lie in bed and try not to scratch . . . but I always succumb.