From bad to worse - my left leg

I have been nursing two problems with my left leg for several months: swelling from the knee to the toe; and an open sore about 3/4 in in diameter.  Neither problem seemed that serious when I discussed each with my doctor.  The support hose and lasix didn't help the swelling and the anti-fungal salve was only slowly helping the open sore.

Then last Saturday I put a different band-aid over the sore after rubbing it with the prescribed salve.  It was one of those band-aids that is like rubber in that it deforms easily and sticks well even to wet skin.  The next evening my skin was all red around one end of the band-aid.  It felt like a bad sunburn or chemical burn.  When we removed the band-aid the skin came off as well.  The new wound was bigger and uglier looking than the original.  So we placed the salve on both sores and placed a band-aid over the new sore.  Yes, we're smarter than the average bear so we place the band-aid at 90 degrees from the previous one and (I can't believe this) we used the same flexible, sticky band-aids.  The next morning (you guessed it!) removing the band-aid tore a 3/4 inch piece of skin.  The other end had generated a blister 3/4 inch in diameter and a 1/4 inch high.  The blistered had punctured and was leaking it fluid.

I got an appointment with the doctor Monday morning.  He said to stop using the salve and the band-aid that had caused the trouble (duh!) and had his male nurse dress the wound with 4 x 4 gauze sponges.  The doctor prescribed an antibiotic, prepared a specimen from the weeping blister, and told me to come back two days later to see how the wound was going.

Two days later, the wound isn't growing but it is uglier.  The culture indicated that another antibiotic was called for.  The nurse decided that it would heal better if the leg were not swollen.  After dressing the wound, he proceeded to wrap my leg with four layers of gauze, foamy stuff, ace bandage type cloth, and netted tubing.  I complained that I wouldn't be able to see the wound healing and he sympathized by saying he wouldn't be able to either.

I can still get my leg into my pants and my foot will fit into my sports shoe even with socks on.  (It won't fit into my dress shoes with or without socks)..  And I will wait until next Wednesday to look at the wound again.