my father has had a venous leg ulcer for approx 7.5 years.Despite various treatment, including grafts and a failed angiogram,it continues to deteriorate.He is now confined to a wheelchair due to the pain of walking.he cannot keep his legs up because of arthritus and gout.His feet are now profusely leaking yellow fluid and are covered in a kind of white jelly.If anyone has had similar experiences i would be glad of any advice. thanks ,kev
I had a leg ulcer and despite various methods of treatment it just got bigger and then a second one appeared near to the first one. I was in a lot of pain with it.
After a year or so the nurse at our surgery put me in touch with the Tissue Viability Nurse' at our local clinic. I chose to trail the four layer bandaging approach. Within the first two weeks the ulcers looked smaller. It took a few months to heal. When it was almost healed and about the size of a one pence piece, we used a stocking but within days it started to look bigger again. Back to the four layer bandages. Two weeks later it was completely healed.
It was uncomfortable wearing four layers of bandage but I soon got used to it and without that method I think I would still have the ulcer.
Hi you need to take your father to a leg ulcer specialist, depending on where in the country you live there are some very good services. The specialist will do some simple tests to work out what may be causing the ulcer and then give appropriate treatment. The cause of the majority of ulcers is about poor blood return to the heart, if this is the reason your father has an ulcer it can easily be treated with compression bandages, however compression must not be used until he has had a Doppler test which ensure the blood supply to the leg is adequate.
This web site : http://www.legulcerforum.org/patientsleaflets has some excelent leaflets for patients about leg ulcers.
Ask your GP to be referred to the Leg Ulcer Service or if you do not have one to the Tissue Viability Nurse. If you don't have one of those either contact the Leg Ulcer Forum and they will advise you.
Good luck.
Jacqui
[quote:a655a483d7=\"Tessa\"]I had a leg ulcer and despite various methods of treatment it just got bigger and then a second one appeared near to the first one. I was in a lot of pain with it.
After a year or so the nurse at our surgery put me in touch with the Tissue Viability Nurse' at our local clinic. I chose to trail the four layer bandaging approach. Within the first two weeks the ulcers looked smaller. It took a few months to heal. When it was almost healed and about the size of a one pence piece, we used a stocking but within days it started to look bigger again. Back to the four layer bandages. Two weeks later it was completely healed.
It was uncomfortable wearing four layers of bandage but I soon got used to it and without that method I think I would still have the ulcer.
I have been in compression (4 layer) for 16 months and my ulcer is the same size as when I started with this method the fluid build up attacks the ulcer making it worse 2 weeks without the compression and my ulcer has halfed in size and doesn't leak as much (also with compression after 3-4 days the smell is unbearable).
It always pays to see both sides of a treatment!