Can anyone help me by telling me how to treat leg ulcers? I need practical help on what to put on them, if there is a special way to dress them, etc. I've just started getting them on my leg.

I know most of the advice will be to speak to my consultant or my doctor, but I only see my consultant once every 3 months & all you get is a 30 min max treatment time, during which he has to deal with all the other problems with RSD, both in my arm as well as my leg (possibly my neck now too). As to my doctor, I'm with one of the best GP's (general practitioner) in my area, she doesn't really know what to do cos of the RSD. Her advice has been mainly to dress the wound with lint & germaline (antiseptic cream) & hope it clears up. I have no access to a nurse (they're not much better than the doctor anyway, cos all they do is refer you back to the GP)

My daughter is my career & she's going nuts trying to find any help on the internet. It keeps saying cut down salt, don't eat canned foods or certain veg, all of which I don't eat anyway, as she makes all our food from fresh stuff (I'm gluten & lactose intolerant) so we don't have any salt other than what is in food naturally. No where seems to give practical help on treating or dressing them.

Please any help would be gratefully received as I really don't need these on top of my flare up, whilst trying to cope with this spreading. Thank you in advance

I am very sorry that you are having to deal with this on top of the RSD. I don't have any experience with it myself but I did a quick search for at home treatments of leg ulcers and found the following:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/19...r-a-leg-ulcer/

http://www.home-remedies-for-you.com...leg-ulcer.html

There were a lot more which spoke to diet changes and stuff as you mentioned but it sounds like you already have that info. I'm not a doctor or nurse or anything and since I don't have any personal experience I'm sorry I don't have much more to offer you. But based on those articles it sounds like elevating it, exercising, compression, and regular cleanings are the best things in terms of just day to day care.

Hope you get better soon.

Thanks for the link's, I don't mind the elevation bit (so long as the calf doesn't touch anything, not easy) & I get plenty of exercise walking my dog (we trained him as a helping hands dog).....I think most people would probably call it 'limping my way up the road slowly' but at least I can still do it I'll go to the chemist tomorrow & see if I can get a compression sock thingy.

Hi cinders, Sorry you have to cope with leg ulcers on top of your RSD. My mother suffered from this, but do to her own OCD. If this isn't responding to good healing quickly, you can go to a wound care specialist. They had my mother cleared up in no time at all. They did do special dressings, and a medicine, and you go in as often as they want you to, to get it healed fast. I hope you get good resolution. Not many have heard of wound care specialists, but that speciality is out there. I wish you all the best. ginnie

Thanks I'll look into a wound specialist, but I'm not sure we have these in the UK, I'm not sure though as I've never needed this kind of care before. I didn't even realize I had one let alone two. They are at the back of my calf, not some where I look often but I will in future. At the moment my daughter has put an iodine patch on, that should help for tonight I hope. thanks again

I am not sure what is offered in your country the UK. However I would call your local hospital and see if they have information on where you can go for help. What caused this injury to you? I hope you heal quickly. ginnie

Check out the RSD puzzles by Dr. Hooshmand There is a puzzle that discusses RSD and Ulcers. I'm unable to post the link in its normal form (I've have not made enough post to do so) *edit*

Thanks for the info I managed to find it. Took a while to find the right bits but I got there

Hi ginnie, which injury, I've had so many Thank you for asking. That's the worst of this, no body ever asks you what's wrong or how did you get that, it's like you have some sort of plague that shouldn't be talked about.

The original injury which caused the RSD was hyper extension of the wrist, I was in a violent & abusive marriage (not any more, I got the guts to leave him eventually). The RSD spread to my hand/fingers, up my arm into the elbow & shoulder. I was on oral ketamine treatment from 1999 till last year. When I moved to another part of England they changed my treatment & I had to do a VERY FAST come down off ketamine. I was taking 5mls x 5 times a day, I had to do the come down with only 300mls.... It was horrid, I highly un-recommend it to anyone! I've had a little pain & mini problems with my leg for about 2 years, but in summer last year it really started to get more problems. Then by the fall it was getting really bad, winter hit & I had full blown RSD in the foot, ankle & calf. So far the knee is not too bad, but I can feel it getting the spasms, if you know what I mean.

The internet research I've managed to do seems to point at me having come off the ketamine so fast & feeling so ill during & for a while after, that may have triggered a bad flare up & caused the spread?? I didn't have internet access till recently so don't really know that much about RSD, I'm trying now to educate myself cos my family doctor doesn't seem to know that much & the pain clinic doctor isn't experienced enough, but he's the best in my area. I have no car or transport other than bus or train to get anywhere else. I get alot of pain if I travel for too long without brakes so I'm very limited to what help I can get, I'm probably going to post a lot of silly queries on here to try to help me understand RSD properly

I've had so many falls with the leg giving way that I get loads of scraps, bumps & bruises all the time, so I have no idea which ones where the ones that caused the skin ulcers, or even if they did it. I've never had them before so don't know much about them (except they hurt like hell when their being cleaned!) I've been trying to find more info on them but there seems to be a lack of it out there. I've found loads of stuff for treating them but very little about how they begin. Some places say it's cos of the grazes or cuts that just go bad

I'm so pleased I found this forum, I keep reading all the posts that possibly could be useful, I've followed just about every link suggested in posts, it's amazing where I've ended up.....