Non-healing wounds
 

Has anybody had problems with non-healing, or slow-healing wounds? My friend got a cut on her head 5 weeks ago, and despite 3 rounds of antibiotics, it is still open and bleeding. She is going to a dermatologist tomorrow, but I wonder whether she shouldn't be seeing an immunologist instead ... or maybe to a vascular-type person because this is because of low oxygen circulation in the blood vessels?

There doesn't seem to be much on this type of skin problem in the RSD literature, so I would appreciate knowing whether anyone else has had this problem. And what they did about it.

Thank you.

P.S. The only relevant article I've seen recently was Effect of spinal cord stimulation in Type I complex regional pain syndrome with 2 rare severe cutaneous manifestations. Journal of Neurosurgery. 110(2):274-8, 2009 Feb.

Everything has always healed slow on my right hand. That is hand they think I have had RSD in for the last eighteen years since I crushed it. The crush injury of course makes it worse. I have alot of tissue & nerve damage. But regarless everything takes forever to heal on that hand. I hope your friend gets better.
Hugs, Denny

Hi Molly,
 

I think we have talked about this before. You might want to try and find some of the other threads but others will answer here soon.

I do have places that won't heal on me. I see my Dermotologist next month again. He says they are precancerous. They will not heal though and they drive me nuts. He has gotten rid of some but they just keep coming on. He froze some of them and the put shots in the others.

I bruise easily and I get cut easily and don't heal fast either. I honestly don't know if it's part of the RSD but I do know I never dealt with this until my RSD.

Ada

Before rsd I healed very fast. Now, if I get a lesion on my legs that is no bigger than the head of a pin, it'll still be open and trying to heal 2 weeks later! A paper cut takes almost as long. I had a stab wound to my hand a while back now. It should have healed quicker than it did. It took over a month for it to get there completely and then another couple of months for the pain to calm down.

Hugs,

Karen

I also suffer from healing problems. Before I got RSD, I used to heal very fast - if I cut my knee, the cut would be fully healed with a few days at the most etc. Now that I have RSD though, everything takes so much longer to heal up! I had an ingrown toenail removed last year on my RSD leg and it took a lot longer than it would in a normal person for the incision to heal - even though it was only fairly small!! I also had a really nasty case of Cellulitus just before Christmas and that was awful - my Pain Management Doctor kept saying that it would go away within a week or so but it didn't and I ended up needed a really strong course on antibiotics to get rid of it. I still have some scarring now from where the Cellulitus was.

Now that I have RSD, I always seem to get more infections also. I'm not sure why, but I am more prone to things like Cellulitus - I never had it before I developed RSD and have had it at least 2-3 times now!

I'm sorry to hear about everything that your friend is going through. I really wish that I could help her more but I don't have any answers unfortunately. Just know that I care and send her my love. Please keep us all updated when you can!:hug:

I also have had the same problem. My wounds would take months and months to heal. It was so bad that finally my dr. removed all the bad flesh from the top and bottom of the foot and put me in a vacpac for 2 months. Finally, it fooled my body into thinking that everything was fine and it healed. Since then, I have developed a MRSA infection and several other types of infections. Nothing heals the way it should. I wish you luck healing.

Hugs
Mary

Slow healing wounds
 

I have had a wound on my leg that has not healed in 9 months. I have been going to the wound center at the hospital for the past 7 months and they debride it every week but it hasn't helped at all. I have tried several different medications and lived with this doctor scraping or cutting on the wound with nothing more than a little lidocaine (which does absolutely nothing for the pain). I have even gone through hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments to try to help the wound (which had an added benefit with the RSD) but they wouldn't let me continue after 10 treatments. It was helping my RSD pain. But did'nt help the wound much at all. I was really bummed out when I found that I was not going to be able to continue the HBOT. Anyway, with each weekly visit costing over $700 to debride the wound,, I have decided about 2 weeks ago to quit going to the wound center and am using the same medicine but just going to see if I can get it to heal on my own without it being cut on every week.

I have also had frequent infections and sores on RSd Limb. My Dr treated with antifungal po and it cleared better than just antibiotics. I have not had any since last Nov.

Debbie