By the doc

Nasty skin infection? It’s the ideal time to put your feet up

My advice was quite simple – put your feet up.

A woman came in to the surgery last week with a sore leg. A red and shiny patch had appeared on her left calf, just around the ankle, and it was quite sore.

She’d felt unwell a few days before, just as the patch was developing.

These are the textbook signs of cellulitis, an infection of the skin, and the tissue just below the surface.

With this condition the harmless bacteria that live on the surface of our bodies penetrates the skin and begins to cause problems. There can be many different reasons for this.

If you’re elderly you’re more likely to get it, the same if you have swollen legs for various reasons – including obesity.

Someone on steroids or undergoing chemotherapy might develop it, as their immune system isn’t perhaps as strong as it could be.

Pregnant women or those with poorly controlled diabetes can be prone to it – as can those using intravenous drugs.

Certain skin conditions, such as eczema or athlete’s foot, make it more likely, too.

It tends to appear in the lower leg, but it can pop up around the face, especially the eyelids – this is called periorbital cellulitis.

Sometimes other conditions can be mistaken for cellulitis, like an allergic reaction to insect bites or conditions such as varicose eczema.

It’s important for doctors to try to identify when it’s these that have caused the red patch.

That’s because the treatment for cellulitis is usually antibiotics, and we’re trying not to prescribe as many of those these days.

And we do want to treat cellulitis because it can cause rather unpleasant consequences.

If left to spread it can lead to blood poisoning, abscesses, and other nasty infections.

A week, sometimes a fortnight, of antibiotics is usually enough.

I did recommend my patient take a few days off work and elevate her affected leg.

It wasn’t a lazy couple of days though – the leg has to be above the hip. Lying on a sofa with the leg propped on the arm usually does the trick.

Lying in a bed with your foot on the phonebook was recommended — but they’ve stopped giving them out now.

I’m afraid people have to find something else to use these days!