I called to talk to the people at Providence about the wound treatment center and they set me up for a phone consultation this afternoon - the guy I talked to was really helpful and talked about what I should actually be doing to care for my wound and what to worry about or not worry about. Since my sugars test as normal, I need to worry most about infection and the area of redness around the wound should be watched carefully for spreading there as well as keeping an eye on the ulcer itself. If things got worse I wouldn't need to have my leg amputated at the knee, but I could lose a chunk of my calf to surgical debridement.

He also reassured me that the increase in the size of the ulcer isn't necessarily a bad thing - if there was a ring of dead skin around its opening, that would have been slowly removed by the wet-to-dry dressing technique that was reccomended before. The fact that the bandages were becoming painful to remove is a positive sign in that respect. There are live nerves at the edge of the wound and that is GOOD. Ouch = living cells. However, that kind of physical debridement can also disturb the healing cells, so instead of pulling off the dressing dry, I should soak it if it's sticking.

I asked about honey dressings. The doctor said the same thing a few of you have said - I'm welcome to try it but I should also continue taking the antibiotics as prescribed by my Dr. at the clinic.

The wound center's indigent care program is about the same as country doctor - to qualify for free care you can't earn more than 50% above the Federal poverty level, which is around $8k/year for a single adult. Well, I make about double the $12/K a year they need to provide me with free care and that's enough to exclude me from discounted care as well. But they were kind enough to waive the fee for the phone consult today, so that was nice of them.


Experiment 1: Soaking tub

I obtained a kitchen trash can that measures 11x14 at the bottom and 18" tall. Lucky me, this is about the same height as my desk chair. Filling it proved easy, since the tap in the bathtub is higher than that. Moving it somewhere usable proved.... doable, if a little sloshy. A good "Fill Line" got marked on it (I tested it out to make sure it covered the appropriate area and didn't overflow the tub). I hauled it out here and set it on a towel. It worked out well. Tomorrow we will figure out how much epsom salts to add.

Experiment 2: Honey dressings - this weekend

Manuka honey is the most effective but is hard to come by in the US.... or well, it's easy to order but for the price I could just go to the doctor. Unpasteurized honey of any variety also works but needs to be changed more frequently to keep from being overdiluted by the fluid oozing from the wound. My particular wound is oozy, but not like it was - I was cutting a maxi-pad in half and in six hours it would be pretty thoroughly soaked with yellow goo. So... the trick is to figure out how to make a honey dressing that will effectively hold the honey in place without access to expensive occlusive dressings and without ruining my slacks.

The answer so far is to apply the honey to the inside of the dressing sponge and tape it on. On top of that, a secondary dressing made out of a square of lightweight vinyl will be put in place to act as a water- and honeyproof barrier. I may also wrap this with athletic tape, but that's maybe overkill....