Raynaud's, Ulcers, and Surgery

After neglecting this blog for two years, I've decided to write a post.  So, welcome back, self!

Before I begin with this story, I want to clarify why I'm writing this.  There aren't a lot of blogs I could find about this subject, but I know of one post that really helped me not totally freak out.  I hope that my story might be able to help someone else not totally freak out, too.

The past year an a half has been pretty crazy for me for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was medical.  I have an autoimmune disease called mixed connective tissue disease, which is pretty rare, but one of the symptoms is Raynaud's phenomenon.  Basically, when I get cold or stressed the blood in my fingers and toes leaves and they turn white and painful and numb.

This is how I know it's cold.
(Not my hands)

It sucks.

One thing about having decreased blood flow to your fingers is that if you, say, accidentally bang your finger against a dog's tooth one day and don't think it's that big of a deal, your finger isn't getting enough blood to fight off an infection and eventually it turns into an incredibly painful ulcer!  Actually, I read somewhere something like, "if you've never had a digital ulcer, you have no idea of the pain."

Look at this!  Look at how painful!
(Also not me, but this is how mine looked just on a different finger)

Which also sucks.

It's especially painful when that ulcer turns into a bone infection due to my stupid brain thinking it was healing when really it was getting worse.  Advice: If you have Raynaud's and develop an ulcer, go to a doctor right away.

What ended up happening with me is that I was admitted into the hospital for a week where I was given IV antibiotics.  After getting the PICC line put in (basically a more permanent line that goes directly into your heart from a vein), I gave myself IV antibiotics for 6 weeks from home.

(Again, not me, but yeah, that's what it looked like)

Then!  Some hand surgeons didn't think I was healing fast enough, so they decided to give me a digital sympathectomy.  On my right hand they made four incisions where they removed the sympathetic nerves from the arteries so that the blood flow would increase.  Basically.

Before getting this done, I got a bilateral angiogram done of my hands.  I wasn't put under for it because I opted to drive myself home and it took about 2 hours.  Advice: Get someone to drive you home.

Here is my hand after the surgery.  They made more incisions for me because more of my fingers had fucked up arteries, as the angiogram showed, but normally they would just do the one on the finger.

  

Frankenhand.  As you can see on my thumb and first finger, it wasn't a perfect fix.

Healed version - I still have some pretty intense scars on my wrist.

The best advice is to prevent them from happening in the first place, duh.

(For an early Christmas present, my parents got me some heated gloves, which I will be using often.)

But for those of us who get these, or have them and don't know what to do, what do we do?  Go back in time and not accidentally injure your finger and instantly know that it's an ulcer and find a primary care doctor and go on antibiotics?

Well, in the future, yes.  But the past is that past and bad things can happen and you deal.

Going forward, if I get a wound or one develops into an ulcer, I've figured out a method that works for me.  Everyone does something different, but here's mine:

1. Put honey on it and keep it covered with a bandage
2. Change bandage twice a day and when you do, wash hands with anti-bacterial soap and soak finger in warm water and chlorhexidine solution for ten minutes.

Eventually, the gross ulcer-y part that's preventing healing will come off.  Keep the honey-bandage on there until it's healed, though.

Even though you got to do what you got to do as a rule, I am vegan so I try not to use animal products as much as possible, including honey.  So, I ordered this antibiotic stuff that's supposed to be all natural and work.  I say work because triple antibiotic ointment does shit, don't use it.  Hopefully this'll work.

In the end, I still have an indent on my finger where the ulcer was.  It's not that big of a deal considering one of the options discussed was removing the top of my finger entirely.

But even if that had happened, it's not the end of the world.

Shit happens.