I do to ease pain of gout?
a long- standing condition. The underlying reason for this is usually poor circulation, which leads to blood pooling in the veins of the legs.
Sitting still all day in a chair, with the legs down, makes the situation worse. Fluid from the swollen veins leaks out into the surrounding tissues which become swollen and puffy. The skin can become starved of oxygen, which means it usually becomes dry and scaly and just the slightest scratch can lead to an infection.
Treating just the infection can be difficult, even with weeks of antibiotics, as the bugs thrive in the oxygen- starved, soggy skin.
The best people to deal with this are specialist tissue viability nurses so it would be worth asking your GP if your wife could be referred to your local service if there is one.
It is also important for your wife to be as active as possible, despite her bandages, as this will help her underlying circulation.
When she is sitting down she should keep her legs raised above hip level as this will help blood and fluid return from her lower legs back to her heart.
If you have a health question for Dr Rosemary please write to her in confidence at The Northern & Shell Building, 10 Lower Thames Street, London EC3R 6EN or email health@ express. co. uk
Dr Rosemary’s reply will appear in this column. She regrets that she cannot enter into personal correspondence and that due to the volume of letters she cannot reply to everyone. Find out more at drrosemaryleonard. co. uk