Managing The Legs, August 2025

5 August 2025. Just back from another excursion to the District Nurses. My usual nurse wasn't there again today but I'd seen the stand-in before and she was good at what she did.

I actually came out feeling less in pain than usual, though it's kicking in now as the painkillers I always take before an appointment are wearing off now.

Plus I managed to show her something she had never seen before when she asked to check my bum for sores... I did warn her beforehand and she reacted with a look of surprise and 'Well I've never seen that before, you learn something every day...' Oh alright, enough of the teasing... I told her about the fractures to the bottom of my spine which now have my tailbone do a bit of a jig to the right... It is not comfortable and not recommended as a fashion item.

11 August 2025. I am just getting to the stage where I want to get out of the house every now and then. Each time is a trial as yet. Still a lot of pain in the legs despite all the paracetamol, gabapentin nerve painkillers and morphine (I am currently on 33 medications per day). Walking onto a slope, whether an actual gradient of the ground, an uneven pavement or a slope because I'm passing a driveway, is an issue as trying to adjust my balance sends pains shooting up from ankles to calves ("What's that bloke doing riding that small cow on my driveway?")

Otherwise the legs are improving. Fewer and smaller wounds, but the main problem is the availability of bandages and dressings. Despite numerous orders going to the wholesale pharmacy by the District Nurses, we have received exactly nothing since I came out of hospital. By all accounts neither have the District Nurses. Every time I go to have my legs redressed they have to go filching supplies from other rooms, nurses or surgeries. Sometimes it's a case of make do with whatever they have got. This is obviously some sort of breakdown quite high up in the supply chain.

I'm managing to sleep with my legs raised in bed a bit better than previously. This does mean several trips to the loo during the night though but the good side of that is that my legs are more or less normal sized instead of swollen and solid all the way to my neck... I've still been wearing shorts in the house for comfort though I did try a pair of normal trousers the other day, gave a squawk of surprise and had to order some new ones in a smaller size. That's all good and well, but I'm sure I've shrunk in height as well as getting rid of waste er... I mean waist...

Still takes me ages most nights to get to sleep and as a consequence I drop off far too easily during the day, making it harder to get to sleep at night making it easier to drop off...

So standing and walking are still painful and pressure on my right leg for any length of time particularly first thing in the morning after I've had my legs horizontal can start the remaining wounds bleeding which can be excruciating. Sitting and lying on my back are not always pain free either because of both pressure on my calves when lying and on my bent and sticky-out tailbone when lying or sitting. When I say sticky-out I don't mean I appear to have a tail, but it's a bit more prominent under the skin than it would normally be.

Hoping to try a bus ride into Poulton this week. I need to sort out the new glasses I ordered just before going into hospital which when I got them were superb for one eye but didn't allow me to focus the other eye properly at all.

12 August 2025. Had a doppler test at the District Nurses yesterday - that's a bit like having a blood pressure test except the inflatable collar goes over the wounds on your legs and is tightened until you are just about to scream. Then a microphone is pressed to your leg above and the noise of blood trying to get through the restricted veins is measured in some way and a calculation then is performed which in my case said I couldn't have compression bandages...

I have very slight compression from the ordinary bandages but the upshot is that swinging legs out of bed in the morning feels very similar to being in hospital when I used to gush blood all over the place. Luckily that didn't happen but I'm hobbling more again and waiting for a second test to confirm either yes or no for the compression bandages or whether I need referring to the hospital vascular team again. Joy...

The lack of a few layers also meant that lying down last night was more painful and kept me awake quite a bit and I've spent most of the day so far trapping my nose in the middle of my book as I doze off and lean/fall forwards...

18 August 2025. Was waiting for this to happen - since they decided I couldn't have compression bandages on, I am now sporting a stain on the bandages over the back of one leg the size of a 50p piece showing where one of the few wounds remaining has split and started weeping again. Blooming painful too. And at 3:00am this morning woke up and the wobbly tombstone tooth that has been annoying me for a few weeks came out and made me play hide and seek for it with my tongue before I could get it out of my mouth... District Nurses appointment just after lunch, hoping it will be my usual nurse who we haven't seen for a couple of weeks.

23 August 2025. Finally! After almost two months of orders and reminders being sent by the District Nurses, yesterday the pharmacy delivered this lot... including the bag on the floor with more bandages but not the carpet sweepers or the bit of finger top left...

Since they stopped the compression bandages I have been very sore and at times leaky. Had a couple of outings though this week to Blackpool and Poulton to sort out various bits. Hoping to get new glasses back today with decent lenses for both eyes! Stand by for fully descriptive posts of everything I can see. Gosh Miss Franny - is that what you look like?

Cancer and Leg Ulcers Index