My mother is 87 and has stage 4 kiidney failure, congestive heart failure, diabetes . peripheral vascular disease and a crop of basal cell carcinomas. She is very frail. But she's still a warrior mum.
It's thought these are the legacy of aggressive radiation treatment after a radical mastectomy at the age of 32 - the treatment was found to have dmaaged her heart.
However, she's now 87, and had not reported the cancer until a year after she found the lump and when it become painful, for fear of what dad would say at having to take time off work - it wasn't a happy marriage.
Fast foward to today, and two basal cell carcinomas have been removed - one wound much slower to heal than the other because of its location, her shoulder, and the fact she's either sitting or laying down for much of the day.
A third has been found on the site of the drainage hole for the cancer all those years ago. She couldn't understand why it had never healed.
Because of her poor healing these days the specialist prescribed Aldara initially - and I've applied it meticulously, to the letter, along with my other caring duties re pressure sore avoidance, leg ulcer after a really deep cat bite in 2020 and incontinence issues.
The aim was to avoid surgery. Sadly , the Aldara provoked quite a reaction and the site bled profusely. When you contact dermatology they recommend putting a light gauze dressing over the site at night - but gauze soaks through fairly quickly and it can also stick to the wound . Once again, I had to call the clinic several times for guidance and eventually turned to our community nurses who said they couldn't do anything without a referral (they had one for the shoulder BCC) but expressed concern at the wound possibly 'fungating' and recommended I contact the clinic again.
I did yet again, was finally told to take my mother in - and they applied a wound dressing and advised me to call the wound care service (which is run by the extended hours team) in four days time and attend the clinic closer to our home. There a nurse applied a new dressing and suggested I apply hydrocortizone cream , 1 per cent , twice daily. The pharmacist expressed misgivings when I said what it was for.
The wound is still bleeding. The leaflet states not to be used on an open wound. The BCC is still there. And if it's applied twice a day that's repeated reapplications of dressings - I've been supplied with Cosmopor E to be applied straight to the wound. I've gone through some really difficult times, as a carer, with my mum's recovery from certain procedures or problems, and I sometimes feel medics just think "oh her again" when I contact them but I don't want to make things worse. The very first basal cell wound site became infected and again everything had been done to the letter. I don't take risks with my mother.
