LIFE WITH A CHARCOT FOOT
Worms Aren’t What They
Used To Be This all started on a Saturday afternoon. I noticed that my foot wasn’t looking right. I had an ulcer on the left side of my left foot. Let me explain a bit. I’ve had a Charcot Foot (left foot) for about 13 years and I’ve had to deal with quite a few ulcers. This recent incident started in January of 2008. I woke up from a nap to find fluid on the floor by my foot. Apparently, an ulcer/wound had opened up and my foot was “leaking” fluid. I stayed in the hospital for a day for that, receiving antibiotics intravenously. After I went home, I was concentrating so much on bandaging the new ulcer in the proper way, that I neglected the right side of my foot which had always been kept bandaged to guard against any calluses or other wounds showing up. My foot is misshapen so I was very careful about keeping it padded and bandaged with gauze. About two weeks after the new wound was found and treated, it occurred to me that I wasn’t bandaging my foot properly, but by then the damage had been done. A new small ulcer had formed on my foot. I could have kicked myself for allowing this to happen, but that wouldn’t have done any good. I had to start taking care of the new ulcer. Things were going well, until I got an infection in the new wound/ulcer. So, in April of 2008 I found myself in the emergency room, again being admitted into the hospital for another day to get antibiotics intravenously. I left the hospital with a clean wound, praying for the best. I got out of the hospital on a Monday afternoon. Things went well until the following Saturday. I woke up, went to change the bandages on my foot and noticed that the skin didn’t look like it normally looked. See, I had a lot of dead skin on my lower leg around the ankle area. It had just always been there since my foot came out of the cast in 1996 following my Charcot foot diagnosis. I tried to brush that skin off with the bandage and it jumped back. I took a second look because I couldn’t believe what I just saw. It looked as if one piece of the skin was moving. I looked again because I thought I must have been still sleepy and dreaming. So I decided to just sit there and look at my leg non-stop. I saw things that looked like baby worms crawling on my leg. I watched them move and crawl out of the crevices in that dead skin. See, this skin had gotten rough and hard. No matter how I tried to soak it, moisturize it, etc, it would never change. It looked like the surface of a rocky field. These little worms kept moving until I brushed them off. Believe me, I wasn’t calm while this was happening. My immediate thought was ”maggots!” Maggots on/in my leg? Oh my. This is not what you want greeting you when you first get up in the morning. Let’s just say I freaked out. I was crying a lot, which didn’t help me any with trying to grasp the situation. All I knew is that in the movies, the only time I saw maggots was when someone was dead and the maggots would crawl around on their dead skin. So I thought my leg was dead. That was it. I had nothing else in my mind. Suffice it to say, I went back to the emergency room (third time in three months) and waited to see the doctor. The first doctor came in and said that I would have to be admitted. That I’d have to have surgery and that when my leg was cut open there would probably be hundreds of maggot worms under my skin. NOT wanted to hear. I was told that I had to wait for the vascular specialist to come down to see my leg and foot before a final decision was made. I waited and the vascular specialist arrived. Much to my surprise he didn’t seem concerned too much. He told me that what I saw were maggot worms but that they do good instead of bad most of the time. I’d just been scared half out of my wits and he’s telling me that maggots can do GOOD? I had to think about what he was saying. He told me that the maggot worms showed up because of the dead skin and the infection I had in the prior ulcers. He told me that I could go back home and wouldn’t have to be admitted. I asked him what I should do if I see more. His response shocked me. “Just brush them off,” he said in a relaxed tone. Let me tell you. This was something I did not expect to hear. He spoke to me like we were ordering lunch at a restaurant. It put me at ease, but still, to see worms crawling on my leg and know that it came from my skin (and not some outside source) still isn’t something I want to think about. I also wanted to know just HOW they got on my leg. The vascular doctor told me that the maggots live on our bodies all the time along with other organisms. I had seen documentaries about things like that (microscopic bugs on our sheets, skin, etc….) and that given the right conditions (my ulcer, etc…) they can grow. Ok, that was explained. So, I was sent home. I was glad to be going back home, but nervous about changing my bandages again. Searching for new maggots on my leg isn’t a happy chore, but at least I know not to get hysterical if I see another one. Just another story in my life with a Charcot Foot. Belver Ladson has dedicated her life to diabetes awareness and spreading the word about living a good life with diabetes. If you have any questions or comments for Belver you can contact her at belver@dfandiabetes.com or at http://www.dfandiabetes.com -or- http://www.dfandiabetes.com/charcot
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