Cellulitus on leg?

Question

I have been told by nurses and 3 doctors, it's cellulitus. A carwreck damaged my right side, now in a wheelchair. The knee down is bright red, looks burned, gets welts, if cut shaving, it just keeps draining clear stuff, for days. I get big blisters. I take LASIX everyday, and there is noway to elevate that leg. And if it's even a little warm, it swells. Sure hope someone can help me. I have give up on the doctors here in this town.

Answer 1

That does not sound good. How long have they said you have cellulitis? Cellulitis is a staph infection that alot of people with lymphedema wind up with due to non-circulating lymph fluid, it stagnates then a little cut, scratch, etc happens, bacteria gets in and you become very sick. Cellulitis is nothing to fool around with, it can turn septic which can lead to death. You need treatment pronto. It sounds like you might have developed lymphedema from damage to the nodes. The clear drainage is lymph fluid, blisters are common, and if it's true lymphedema, lasix is NOT good because it pushes fluids out and leaves the plasma, proteins, and gunk in there which over time becomes hard and fibrotic. You need to be seen by a wound specialist or wound treatment center, infectious disease doctor, and when infection has cleared, a lymphedema therapist. They do therapy which is complete/complex decongestive therapy, it's a form of medical manual massage, they move fluid through your body with specialized technique and gradually the swelling goes down. You would be wrapped and learn skin brushing, skin care, how to do the therapy yourself, and then you'd graduate to a compression stocking to keep your leg down the smallest it can get.

Doctors, many of them, are ignorant of lymphedema, we are misdiagnosed all the time and only when it becomes very serious with hospitalizations for severe infections or persistance on our part do we find someone to help us.

Let me know where you live and I can refer you to a doctor, wound center and therapist.