I dunno whether to mark this NSFW or not but do your worst.

  • SendPicsofSandwiches
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    75
    ·
    1 year ago

    I often have patients who are uncontrolled diabetics. Their feet essentially rot off of their body if it gets bad enough (diabetes destroys blood circulation, and the feet usually get it first because they have the least blood flow), and the smell is something that text cannot describe. They are also essentially always infected, so leaking pus adds to the multisensory experience.

    • Bread
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s how my grandfather lost his lower leg. Stubborn bastard hid the fact his foot was rotting away. Probably would have been fine if he had done something about it early on.

    • CareHare
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 year ago

      As a nurse who worked 10 years on the vascular surgery ward: very recognizable. I’ve seen people, mostly males, go from small toe infection to complete rotting foot and still not being therapy loyal.

      Surgeons somethimes refered to it as the salami technique because once you start to amputate the toe in most cases a couple of months later it would be a front foot amputation, followed by an lower leg amputation (most times because of infection or because the patient didn’t follow the post-op instructions) and even sometimes an upper leg amputation. Very sad to see.

      I’m not native English, so I don’t know the correct terms for the amputations.

    • Erk@cdda.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Huh, I see a lot of horrifying diabetic foot wounds, and I’ve honestly been surprised by how relatively odourless they are compared to more acute abscessing wounds.

      My set point might just be off. My patient population is, uh, pungent at the best of times… Most of them are homeless or close to, and hygeine is just not something they can prioritize.

      • ristedeløgne@feddit.dk
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        I agree, the diabetic foot ulcers are fairly tame until wet necrosis sets in.

        Cancer wounds are worse in my experience. The little old ladies who don’t go to the doctor until their breast looks like burnt bloody cauliflower and have been bandaging with toilet tissue or old tea towels for ages so you have to fish around in old macerated tissue to get all the threads and clumps out.

        • Erk@cdda.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah I’ll second that one. A fungating tumour almost made me throw up once, I don’t normally react to smells at all