infected thumb

L

lizc

Member
Messages
8
I did battle with a cheese grater 8 days ago now and I have never had such pain from a relatively small injury. The worrying thing was that I saw the blood long before I felt it and that despite being on 500mg Flucloxacillin three times a day it is still very, very painful and refusing to heal. Is there anything else I can do to help it heal apart from keeping it clean, dry and a daily warm salt water soak?

I'm ytpe 2 normally well controlled on Metformin but I have been feeling very unwell and BG all over the place this last week.


HELP
 
S

sugarless sue

Master
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10,098
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Rude people! Not being able to do the things I want to do.
Hi,Liz, welcome to the forum. It is possible that high blood sugars are delaying healing. What are you blood sugar readings just now ?
 
H

hanadr

Expert
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As Sue says
keep your BG down.
If you have normal Bgs, you will generally heal normally.
In any case, this kind of injury can be slow to heal in anyone
Hana
 
L

lizc

Member
Messages
8
Finally got my BG down to aa more "normal" level and my thumb has, to all intents and purposes, healed ie: no open wounds or swelling etc. but I now have an area of numbness over the top and side of my thumb, not at the exact position of the wound site, that hasn't gone away. I do suffer from some neuropathy and was wondering if this is permanent nerve damage from the infection and swelling. Can anyone help please?
 
M

mogsta22

Member
Messages
17
My husband had an infected thumb in May. Actually it was vwery nasty and by the time he went to the doctors the infection was down to his wrist. Indeed as he had not been to the doctors for 18 years it was a rsult of this that he was diagnosed with diabetes. He was told he was less than 24 hours away from being in hospital so bad was his infection.
It took over a month to heal. For the first week he was going in every day for it to be dressed and checked. Then every other day, 3 days and then finally discharged from their care. He had a penicillin based anibiotic for 14 days.
Seems like healing can be a long process for diabetics.
 
W

wallycorker

Well-Known Member
Messages
613
Not very long ago I smashed two of my toes by dropping a car-type battery on them. I broke the two toes but even worse split both of them open - i.e. open wounds. It all looked very nasty and I was very concerned ! The hospital were very worried at the time and there was some frightening talk of skin grafts and even the possibility of amputations.

However, the wounds healed quickly. On discharge, I asked the specialist how the toes had healed compared with other diabetics. He replied that they had healed even better than he would have expected in a non-diabetic patient.

I hope that was all down to the good blood glucose control I have managed to achieve over the last twelve months. If it was then it is all very well worth doing!

John
 
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