Bleeding sores

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Bestfriends14

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Joined
May 7, 2017
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1,884
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Lost a loved one
Diagnosis
05/2017
Country
CA
State
AB
City
CALGARY
Hello fellow CALS,

I woke up to a nasty surprise yesterday morning. The caregiver who was showering my husband pointed out that between his legs, deep in the crease between leg and groin, was a widening red spot that smelled and is oozing and a bit bloody. Of course, I was mortified as the main caregiver in that I had not noticed it at all. So, we cleaned it up, put cornstarch to absorb moisture, and finally put polysporin on it.

This afternoon, it seemed much less red and was no longer stinky. However, now the other side of his groin is starting to bleed. Have any of you battled this and, if so, how did you keep this from happening?
 
We battled that for a long time, esp. since Larry was on warfarin for his prosthetic valve graft. We never succeeded in avoiding the lesions entirely. There was no one answer that I can point to. It was a combination of using baby wipes to clean/moisturize in bed when the skin is dry, grapefruit seed extract spray and ointment for cleaning/disinfection, sometimes a surgical syringe for higher-pressure rinsing (he could not do showers at that point), A&D ointment, cornstarch when there was too much moisture (after soft cloth drying)...but since he's being showered, they can also give that area special attention and that may help. I would not do too much scrubbing since the skin is a protective barrier, too. I can't remember if we tried antibiotic ointment or steroid creams, but it seems logical that we would have.
 
I have used Mupirocin 2% Topical Ointment (Rx). It works extremely well for me if any skin issues arise with the possibility of infection, especially in places like you described. Check with your doctor
 
Thank you so much, @Jimi and @lgelb ! I'll check with my doc tomorrow and ask for the same or similar thing. I'll make sure to not wipe so hard in the sore area, too.
 
We use silver sulfadiazine cream when my husband has any open sores. It works great.
 
@Blu - welcome to the forum. I'm just wondering, your profile says you are a PALS, yet you re posting in the CALS section about your husband? Maybe you just need to change your status to CALS?
That cream is really good for bed sores. It is important to try and prevent them forming at all, but that can be a challenge for sure.
 
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