Replied by Betty (CA) on 02/22/2022

Since it looks to be deep open wound, maybe you can find an IV vitamin C clinic, take the G6PD test to make sure she can take high dose (above 25g). IVC is a wonderful wound healer in high doses. Many many studies on it.

I am sure others will comment with things that have worked for them.

My grandmother did use like half and onion chopped fine with local honey to make a poultice once when my sister was bitten by a dog. The bites left deep wounds and it worked for her in the healing process. I don't know if this would work also for pain though.

Please update us on your Mom!

Replied by Rob (Kentucky) on 02/22/2022

Granulated white sugar heals wounds. Sugar has been used in Egypt and many other Middle Eastern countries for generations as a safe way to treat cuts and in some cases burns. Sugar draws water from the wound into a dressing accelerating the healing process, which is prescribed in African folk medicine. The sugar kills bacteria through osmotic action, and attracts the body's "clean-up crew" of macrophages and other infection-fighting elements to the wound site, thus promoting rapid cleansing and healing of the wound.

I read an article about this sugar cure for wounds back in 1985 from a woman who was trying to heal her grandmother's bedsores. The earliest mention of sugar for wound healing that could be found in the medical literature was during World War I in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Sept. 4,1915).

This treatment persisted as an old wives' tale until the mid 1970s when Richard Knutson, MD, began using sugar on hard-to-treat wounds (Southern Medical Journal, Nov. 1981). His formula involved mixing 4 pounds of table sugar with 1 pound of Betadine (iodine) antiseptic ointment (know that you're not allergic to betadine) and 6.5 ounces Betadine solution in a double boiler over low heat. He applied the mixture to a depth of one-fourth inch, changing the dressing and cleaning the wound daily. He treated over 5,000 patients over 15 years.

Ingredients for sugardine:

* Table Sugar

* 10% povidone iodine (or the more expensive betadine)

Procedure:

* Mix one part 10% povidone iodine to two parts white sugar.

Adding more or less sugar makes it the consistency of thick honey or peanut butter.

Put the sugardine in a container with a tight fitting lid. The mixture will need stirring now and then but it will never go bad.

It is my understanding that with a large open wound you pack it with sugardine and then bandage it.

Sugardyne can be safely applied to the wound without fear of any bleeding once clots have been given adequate time to form–usually 1 ½ to 2 days. A copious amount (¼ to ½ inch thick layer) of Sugardyne is applied to cover or fill the wound and then covered with dry gauze. Deeper wounds are packed full of Sugardyne to the brim. Dressings are changed once daily. Dressing changes continue until the wound is fully healed.

As a rule, no skin graft will be required. Skin will automatically cover the granulation tissue (“proud flesh”) that fills the defect, completely.

Replied by mmsg (somewhere, europe) on 02/23/2022

Replied by ORH (TEN MILE, TN) on 02/23/2022

Replied by Art (California) on 02/23/2022

The remedies you have gotten already are very good ones. You might also make sure that she does not cross her legs in such a way as to put pressure on that specific spot. Even when sitting or laying down, do not put pressure on that spot in any way. This will assist the healing process.

Art

Replied by RB (Somewhere in Europe) on 02/23/2022

His MDs were little or no help.

Based on my experience, your Mom's health needs to be restored first. Your Mom needs to be in excellent health, before that wound will start healing.

In my case, he was a relative, an elderly person, a constipated, sedentary chain smoker who stopped exercising at age 18, and who never in his whole life did anything healthy. Health wise he did just about everything wrong. He ate a ton of white bread, but little or no healthy foods, raw foods, high fiber foods, or protein foods. He drank up to 12 cups of coffee with ordinary sugar, but he never had any water or fruit juice. Besides feeling lethargic most of the time, he could not even have a BM for many weeks at a time.

And then, in this rundown and unhealthy condition, when he got wounded on one of his legs - by a stray dog - his wound remained open for over 10 years. After experiencing a lot of pain and suffering, and after dressing the wound many thousand times, his wound never did heal.

Maggie, based on my experience, you cannot build on weakness or sickness. Your Mom's health needs to be restored 110% first. Your Mom needs to have the will to become the healthiest person in the World. Your Mom needs to be in excellent health first, before that wound can start healing.

I wish your Mom a speedy recovery!

Replied by Jim from Frostburg (USA) on 02/23/2022

Does your mom have cold feet all the time? Wounds on the extremities that do not heal can be caused by a lack of blood-flow to the area. This can happen because of age but diabetics are frequent candidates for this malady. To ascertain if your mom might have this blood-flow problem, is the wound hot? If so then bloodflow is not the cause and most treatments should eventually work. Using a daily comfrey poultice, or Manuka honey and flour beneath a light bandage (or the sugardine treatment mentioned by Rob sounds good) the wound may eventually close.

However, looking at your image, I’m wondering how this opening began. Was it a sudden cut or gash, or was there a slight bump that opened up one day and proceeded to enlarge. I’m thinking, could this be a growing tumor, instead?

If you gently poked the central open area with a pin, does your mom feel it? If that area is a tumor, she will not.

Looking at the image I see swelling skin trying to close around that central orange-colored mass. It seems to me if the mass were cut away then the skin would better close and could even be stitched together. I read your mention of a wound center. Perhaps take your mom to a clinic and get another doctor’s opinion?

I will add, if this problem might be a tumor growing in and under the skin, and since this is Earth Clinic, a site where advice comes from the actual trenches instead of the generals, please know there are ways to kill and be rid of tumors without surgery (as surgery may lead to spread of tumors throughout the body). I will mention the Budwig Protocol, plus two over-the-counter vet-meds that seem to work: Panacure C (Fembendazol) and Ivermectin (1.87%). Each can be researched here and on the web; and also purchased on the web. I can also mention bloodroot paste, which effectively removes growths although with a good amount of pain.

Replied by Jim from Frostburg (USA) on 02/23/2022

Replied by Mama to Many (TN) on 02/24/2022

You have received so much helpful advice, I hesitate to add more, but I thought I would share my (limited) experience with chronic wounds and the elderly.

At end of life my mother had bedsores. Her homecare nurse actually suggested honey. We put honey on her bedsores and even at 81 years old the wound was decreasing in size and looked less angry looking before she passed.

Here is a fascinating study about using honey on wounds with some graphic pictures that show shocking healing with this treatment.

I can't find the information now, but I think as honey breaks down it produces hydrogen peroxide in the wound.

My other experience was with my 83 year old mother-in-law. She lived with us for a while at the beginning of Covid. She was a 'picker' and terrible about scratching and picking wounds. She had several wounds on her legs. She would scratch dry skin. Before she came to us, she had even been hospitalized for cellulitis in her legs, I think related to her wounds.

Anyway, I used a homemade salve that contained plantain and comfrey, both of which promote cell regeneration. At night I would cover the wounds with the salve and gauze and secured it with cohesive tape. The wounds made significant progress in healing. I never completely eliminated the wounds because she would remove the bandages and pick and scratch at night. (Dementia made this process more of a challenge.) Dr. Christopher sells a Comfrey Salve that is excellent for wounds and skin issues.

A few things internally would be helpful. If she could take 1/4 t. turmeric (or one capsule) 4 times a day that would help with inflammation and infection and possibly even pain. Yogurt or milk kefir would also be helpful (possibly the turmeric could be added to this.) Avoiding processed sugar in the diet can also help a wound treatment to be more effective.

Please let us know what you try and how it works. I am hopeful that you will find a workable solution for your mom.

~Mama to Many~

Replied by James (Las Vegas, NV) on 02/24/2022

Replied by Jim from Frostburg (USA) on 02/26/2022

It has been 4-days since I responded to your original post. I asked for some feedback. I mostly suspect your mom’s wound is not healing due to a lack of circulation.

If I had poor circulation in my leg/s then I would suspect narrowing of the artery due to buildup of fibrin and plaque. As far as I know there is no drug available to clear veins and arteries. But there is a well-known enzyme that is quite potent in its dissolution of clots and narrowing. This enzyme comes from the Japanese traditional food known as Natto. Natto can be purchased in Oriental food markets. I’ve eaten soybean natto through my years but it is an acquired taste, believe me. However, the actual enzyme, called nattokinase, is also readily available in a pill-form and you do not need a prescription.

Now, if I suspected I had circulation troubles, I would supplement with a single capsule (100 mil which is 2, 000FU) of nattokinase, taken on an empty stomach an hour before breakfast; plus I would take another pill before bedtime.

Myself, I have a lot of faith in nattokinase. Hopefully this action of increasing circulation might help bring your mom’s overall health back. I also suspect increased circulation will help her with the pain of probable neuropathy.

I see no reason to fault the wound care center. According to what I can discern in your image, the wound is trying to heal; it’s just taking way too long.