Injury that does not heal

laurasurvivor

Hi,

I just joined and I hope this is the right board, there are so many!

By all accounts I should be a happy camper but I'm not.

I miracolously survived a recurrence of breast cancer: metastases in the lungs a year and a half ago. (the first time, 9 years ago, I only had a lumpectomy).

The chemo got rid of all detectable cancer, then I was on Arimidex for almost a year, with horrible side effects, and finally I was put on Tamoxifen, which, compared to other meds, was great.

Then disaster struck. The Tamoxifen made me restless, so I went to my backyard to cut back some trees myself, stepped on a thorn that went deep into my foot and ... that was the last time I walked - this has been going on for almost three months.

The ball of my foot swelled and got red, and is incredibly painful. I had surgery by a podiatrist and an ortopedic surgeon, and finally a plastic surgeon could extract a small thorn. If there is anything else in there, it is microscopic and the doctors can't find it. They say nothing in my foot can be causing the swelling and pain.

An infection specialist gave me all kinds of antibiotics, but he is now saying that I probably no longer have an infection and that the redness, swelling, and pain are not due to infections.

Basically all my doctors are baffled. The foot is not healing and they don't know why. My oncologist also has not seen a case like this, probably because people with my kind of diagnosis do not get in this kind of trouble - they are not well enough to get in this kind of trouble.

Has anyone out there been in my situation? Did you get an injury after recovering from cancer and chemo? Does it ever go away? Do you have any suggestions on how to overcome this?

It would be really ironic that after surviving stage 4 cancer and feeling well, I am defeated by a thorn in the foot.

Thank you in advance for your advice!

chrissyb

Hi Laura and welcome. After going through chemo etc our immune systems are very compromised so we are at risk for some really bad infections. The only thing I could and will suggest is for you to see a good naturopath and enlist their help in helping you get your immune system built up again so your own body can try to deal with what's happening.



Good luck with it all!



Love n hugs. Chrissy

Widdershins3

I really feel for you, laurasurvivor. I'm active too and if I couldn't get out into my overgrown back yard and cut things down, I'd probably need to be fed anti-anxiety meds for the duration! My only advice would be what chrissyb suggested above--when conventional medicine fails, it's time to move on to the alternative field. That's what I'll do if my post-op pain levels stay as high as they are or if the spot of skin that died (over a drainage tube that was in for 2 weeks) doesn't heal pretty soon. But I'll give my doctors a chance to exhaust their bag of tricks first. Good luck to you.