AIBU - Is it fair for me to live like this?

I am quietly optimistic 🤞

Best wishes for a much more comfortable and happier weekend.

All of this should have started 7 months ago but at last you appear to be on the right track.

I am hoping you will have a reasonably pain-free weekend with no major traumas.

Good news indeed, ferry.

Pleased to hear more positive news ferry23 and wishing you a reasonably comfortable weekend. 🤞💐

Yes, I took photos. Probably should have taken more, but got it at it's worst.

That all sounds quite positive Ferry and certainly a whole lot better than it was a few weeks ago. One point, which I may have mentioned before, have you been taking photos, including when the dressings were falling into a soggy heap as you described in your OP? It's all evidence for when you are feeling up to making an official complaint.

Meantime I hope today is the beginning of proper treatment and healing. Have a good weekend - or at least a better one.

Thanks for this update ferry.
So pleased everything is moving in the right direction.

I hope the weekend passes with minimal pain and the dressing stays dry.
Please do keep us informed as to your progress.

That sounds much more positive ferry23!
At least those dealing with you now seem to know what they're doing but you should have been referred ages ago. Your surgery does sound incompetent but, as you say, that's for later.

I can't remember how you got the wound in the first place but, if the nerves were damaged, perhaps that's why you're getting pain but the vascular nurse seems to be on to it now, thankfully.

I hope you have a comfirtable, pain-free weekend.

I’ve been watching for your update ferry23 and happy to hear you’ve had a positive visit with the vascular nurse. It sounds like you are moving in the right direction at last. I hope your progress and good healing continues 💐

Today's update -

Just got home from seeing the vascular nurse. True to form as my luck is going at the moment, hospital transport picked me up at 9, got me to the hospital at 10 and I saw the nurse at around 10.30. However, they forgot to pick me up so I was sitting there for over 3 hours waiting. But I did get a free lunch and read a lot of my book!

She was very thorough and very kind. She answered all my questions clearly and knowledgeably and explained everything she was doing.

My GP had sent her a photo of my leg when he expedited the appointment a couple of weeks back. She said the improvement since then was excellent. Wounds are healing well and drying up nicely. She was happy with circulation and blood pressure.

So we talked about why my leg is still very painful. It could be the discharge still burning back into my skin or it could be neuropathic. It was a little easier during the night and not too bad today - so that could either be the discharge subsiding or the cumulative effect of the morphine and the antibiotics. So that's really for me to hold off the morphine and see what it's like.

It was quite a serious wound so if it is neuropathic I've just got to be patient through the healing process.

And whilst I was there I had a call from the wound clinic asking me when I could attend for a first appointment. Vascular nurse said this would be her preferred route, she said they're very good at my local clinic.

I don't know if I'm going to get a dressing change this weekend as I haven't yet been able to get through to my surgery to see if they have remembered to refer me and if they have, whether a District Nurse is actually going to come. Having said that, the vascular nurse said she doesn't think it needs to be dressed every day now. So as long as her dressings stay on and it stays reasonably dry, I should be ok for Monday.

So a positive day, I just hope this is the start of a better treatment regime and it really is starting to heal properly now.

I'm concentrating on getting this leg better right now. When my head is in a better space I shall start considering how I have been let down by the surgery - should I have been referred to vascular much earlier - should they have left me sitting in infected dressings for 4 days at a time when I first started going - how could they "lose" a patient's prescribed medication - why is a Practice Nurse not reading patient's notes prior to treatment, etc. But that's for later.

I honestly don’t know what to say, you’ve been treated appallingly badly. So I’ll just say all the best for tomorrow, we’re all behind you!

Just let you know that I'm making note of all your suggestions for dressings and pain relief and will go armed to the vascular nurse tomorrow. Thank you all 😊

It's called Inadine.

DD mentioned Manuka honey to aid good wound healing too.

Yes, DH had iodine patches from the hospital, they are good. He said they didn't sting. I might try to buy some because he's always doing something!

Hello Ferry - I can’t tell you sorry I am about all you’re going through. You’ve had an amazing response and lots of advice and support. Have you come across iodine dressings for leg ulcers? Some years ago my son had a horrible accident that needed leg dressings changed daily. When he came home the district nurse started to use iodine dressings and the way it cleaned up the wound and started healing was nothing short of amazing. Contrary to what you would expect 😳 they don’t sting!

There will be a consultant and his team who deal only with pain relief, and you should ask for a referral there because, to date, nothing has helped you.

Sorry, I have been out of the business for too long to give you advice re non-stick dressings.

Around Easter, I had both legs dressed, with the dressings secured in place using a stockinette-type Tubigrip and a light Tubigrip from my toes to below my knees. This was done x3 a week, and I had no problems. I would be capable of doing the dressings, but being partially sighted, that was then out of the question. I had itchiness but no pain. I was impressed because if one dressing did not work, it was changed immediately.

Nerve ends

loopyloo

It might be more painful because it's healing? The nerve tissues are regenerating??
So pleased it looks better.
How's your general health ?
Taking some vit c might help.

Taking some vit c might help

And D and zinc.

I know when I had a knee operation I got some very strange pains a while afterwards, when the wound had healed, sudden sharp jabbing pains which I assumed were nerves ever-growing and coming to life!

I have not been on gransnet for a while as DH is having health problems but I have a friend whose mother had leg ulcers which would not heal and my friend was driven to despair by the treatment for her mother. This was in Tasmania and the friend eventually was in hospital with a nervous breakdown ,not just the mother with the ulcers who was eventually taken to Sydney for care. I am appalled at the care you have had. I second the application form for attendance allowance . It’s long and tedious but should help with taxis and also I used to be a volunteer driver with the Red Cross to take patients and non driving visitors to hospital. I don’t know if they still do but it might be worth asking. I know it’s absolutely no use to you but I cried for you this morning reading the whole thread. DH sent useful advice to the friend in Tasmania and if I had read the thread from the first day I would have sent what he sent her which was very useful in addressing gps.

ferry23

I've tried to play the good guy from the beginning but enough now. I've done the bursting into tears, the 'I can't go on like this any longer' whilst wiping my furrowed brow, the wobbly voice and gulping on the phone. Now it's shouty angry time.

I hope you’re shouting very loudly ferry. It is good news that it’s starting to heal, but not that the pain is so severe, which as loopyloo said maybe due to the healing process. All best wishes that tomorrow’s appointment goes well for you.

Ask if there is an Analgesic Ointment which might prevent the dressing sticking. Also what non stick dressing does the V.nurse recommend. It does sound as if you may have turned the corner, but do NOT let them placate you. Keep insisting for proper care. You shouldn't need to be in hospital imo, BUT you definitely need transport assistance. Have you contacted your M.P.? Can your local Authority help? Remember questions can be raised in parliament.

So glad to hear about the healing, ferry. I hope that you can get the pain under control soon.

Better news on the healing front ferry not so on the pain, hopefully tomorrow may have the answer.

The surgery won't class you has housebound because in reality you aren't. You have to have a lifelong disability for them to recognise you as housebound.
It took them 3 years to accept I'm housebound and in that time I've only been out twice , once to the surgery and once to the hospital. It goes on your records that you are housebound so all the nursing staff know that when they are arranging blood tests and such. It's difficult dealing with GP'S today, they don't seem to recognise when patients are struggling.