Well, he really did it to himself this time.
He has had problems with a recurring ulcer since last May. The doctor would debride it, fix his orthotics, etc. it would heal, it would come back. etc. etc.

He has not been to the podiatrist for over 3 weeks. The last time the doctor debrided it, and he came home. Then he got the blister, (which I lanced, it healed, all was well). Well, last week, I noticed, as the thing heals, it gets hard. AND IT WAS BIG. I said "you really should go and have this debrided, oh my god, what if you get an infection, BLAH BLAH BLAH,ETC.

It really didn't look that good. It was this big hard dark callous thing and he would say "Oh, when I go to see him on the 15th, he'll just debride it" I told him "you should NOT WAIT UNTIL MAY 15TH.

Well, last night, I go into the kitchen and there he is with all the blood all over the place, calmly wiping his foot. He felt nothing of course.

I said "oh my god, what happened". He explained that as he was removing his bandaid (he always wears a bandaid over the ulcer), as he was removing it, a portion of the hardened callous came off and what does he think to himself "oh the doctor debrides this, so why can't I just pick at the remaining hardened skin". Well, he picked and picked and when I walked into the kitchen I saw this hole in his foot. I almost died.

Today, we went to the podiatrist who said "you picked down to the muscle, through 7 layers of skin" Don't do that anymore". He put a wet dressing on Alan's foot, told him to come back on Wednesday where he would see "IF IT GOES ONE WAY OR ANOTHER". which translates to if Alan is healing, then he will come home and do the wet betadyne dressing thing. BUT, if it GOES THE OTHER WAY, he wants Alan to go into the hospital for 5 days FOR WOUND HEALING AND DRESSING EVERY DAY. Alan does not understand what this means. He said "All I did was pick at the foot'.

So we shall see what happens on Wednesday. Anybody else have ulcer problems that they had to be hospitalized for???

Thanks, Melody