The Leg

The other problem that's limiting my quality of life is my darned leg.

As I said, it started giving me a little trouble early this year but it was mainly a matter of getting cramp in my right foot during the night but then I noticed the leg was a bit swollen and early in August my son said it was very red. In the meantime at one of my cancer checking sessions I had mentioned the cramps to a nurse who advised me to see my GP. The GP had thought it was probably poor drainage because most of my lymph nodes were removed last year along with my bladder and prostate. She was however concerned that I might have DVT so she had me checked for that but the test came up negative.

I was prescribed antibiotics, however, and the colour did return to normal and I completed the antibiotics about a week before that dreadful Friday.

In the meantime there seemed little chance of getting any treatment in a reasonable timescale from the NHS so I found a physio who practised manual lymphatic drainage and booked treatment.

I managed only 3 sessions before "black Friday" but they were working. It was getting easier to get my shoe on and off over that foot which must mean the MLD was having some affect.

However on that Friday morning the leg was up like a balloon and I could barely stand on it. I had to "bottom bounce" downstairs like a toddler still unsure of its feet.

I had been keeping my skin on the swollen leg in decent nick with loads of moisturiser so although the skin had dry patches on it it was still intact. Sadly when I was lying in hospital that regular moisturising ceased and I noticed open sores on the shin.

The nurses did dress the sores, of course, but mainly as a way of preventing a HAI rather than to heal them.

It was only after it was made clear that any chemotherapy was impossible with open sores on my leg that anybody gave dealing with them any priority. Even then it took several weeks to get to a leg ulcer clinic.

I have now had pressure dressings on the leg for about 3 weeks and the sores are healing slowly and I am told that the swelling is going down a bit though I have to say I don't know how anybody can tell with all the layers of dressing on it.

I still can't walk very far though much of that is because of my blood problem but having an elephant's leg does not help one little bit.

My two feet are now different sizes. I have had to buy a size ten for my right foot but, of course, an eight still does for my left. So I ended up having to buy two pairs of the same shoe. My vanity would not let me wander around in odd shoes.

The leg is damned sore at times as one would expect with open sores on the shins especially if the dressings are stuck or moving around. Now that I have the compression dressings, though, the set up seems to be more stable and I am getting less soreness there.

The only downside is that as the dressings try to force the surplus water up out of my leg I do have an ache in my groin as the fluid pushes through the restricted drainage channels.

Thank heavens for pain-killers!