take oral antibiotics or wait?

KS1 · January 2011

Hi all -- At night, I've been wearing a band aid because a callus on the palm side of my thumb (where my solaris rubs) had opened up and the exposed skin was very tender. This AM, when I took the band aid off, a chunk of skin on the non-palm side of my thumb came off as well. It looks pretty nasty, like I cheese-grated my thumb. I am doing all the standard things (elevation, hydration, no sleeve, antibiotic cream) but obviously I don't want to put a band aid on it. I have oral antibiotics for emergencies. Do you think I should take them prophylactically? If I should, I have been given 2 doses of Keflex (by 2 different doctors) -- 500 mg twice a day and 500 mg four times a day). Which should I take?

lago · January 2011

I would ask your doctor. It doesn't sound infected but again I'm no MD. Also I personally don't like taking antibiotics unless it's a must… but that's just me.

kira66715 · January 2011

KS1--Can you make a dressing with a piece of telfa, with antibiotic ointment below it, covered by some gauze, so there is no tape touching your skin, yet it's covered--I fold over a 2x2 gauze, wrap it over the telfa and put the tape on top of the gauze.

I think you can wait at this point: but it's also an option to start the keflex, I usually dose it at 500 four times a day, but there's a huge dose variation in keflex, and the lower dose is pretty low at twice a day, but some people do 500 three times a day.

Darn that Solaris.

Let us know how you're doing.

Kira

SleeveNinja · January 2011

KS1 -- AW sh(oo)t . . . I go through the same dilemma everytime I get a skin break on my arm or hand. So far, I've done okay with antibiotic ointment and careful monitoring. Hate to overuse oral antibiotics. But as with all things LE -- everyone is different

Just want to acknowledge that the worry over this kind of (formerly negligible) thing is one of the apsects of LE that can kind of wear a girl down and that no one who doesn't have LE undertsands. Part of the whole sorry package (grrrrrr.)

A callus from from your Tribute sounds like something Solaris could be able to make an adjustment for if you talk to them. ??? I have fragile skin and mild psoriasis and my thumb especially gets dry and cracked from from my Tribute (even worse from gloves & gauntlets, and worst of all from the wrapping gauze.) I try to treat it every few days with cream and a surgical glove (see below).

This might be dumb but it's what I've done when my thumb cracked: put a generous wodge of antibiotic ointment on your thumb (and nice cream on the rest of your hand) and wear a vinyl surgical glove for an hour or so -- to clean & soothe the wound and treat dryness. You might also be able to treat just your thumb with the ointment and a (loose) finger cot (or single finger cut off a surgical glove)-- maybe you can even keep it this on under a compression glove or Tribute for a little while.

KS1 · January 2011

I didn't take oral antibiotics, and I am healing. I tried Kira's suggestion and a variant (antibiotic cream + loose cotton glove), but the irritation increased. Then I tried just antibiotic cream, but the wound got bigger. I then tried a bandaid (+ antibiotic cream) being careful that the gauze part covered the wound. I removed it very slowly and carefully that night, and the wound looked much better, so I have continued doing this. My husband pointed out that given that skin breaks and infection are a risk for LE, having a way to cover them is important. There seem to be dozens of types of band aid type bandages sold. Has anyone found particular types to be bad or good for fragile skin? KS1

PS WRT the solaris, solaris redid the thumb twice, without much success. I have noticed that after a wash sometimes the solaris the thumb doesn't cause irritation and sometimes it does. I wonder if the act of washing & drying moves the filling around.

take oral antibiotics or wait?

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