sea ulcers

You poor bastard Jon, I remember having a cracker sea ulcer but it was about a decade ago. The chemist give me 'some powder stuff' and told me to stay out of the water (yeah right). He reckoned keeping it dry was key, even when not in the water but say with socks on all day. So I religiously went about apply this powder, which sucked up any wet and weeping, keeping it dry quite a few times a day until enventually the hole starts to fill (if this makes sence) or grow back flesh (hope I'm explaining myself mate).

The thing is it's pretty easy to forget about as it doesn't really hurt until out of the blue (a knock/scrape) every now and then it gives you a jab and says "I'm here fucker', so being conscious of treatment was key to getting rid of it. I remember it took a good month.

Good luck buddy

Ey Jon, I had one I thin in the exact same spot as yours.. On the knuckle of my big toe. Honestly, I tried everything you've tried.. spray on bandages.. taping my foot.. wearing booties.. to no avail. I took a 3 week break out of the water and it healed itself up. You can still see where it was, but it's all scar tissued over now. Honestly think it may be your only option... It's well worth the wait because the hindrance is frustratingly brutal!

Not sure if I had the thing as you pepe, but I had the opposite approach when I took what one of these. Well the doc called it a tropical ulcer, maybe it's different. I lightly grazed my leg (just above the ankle) on a submerged log while swiming in a river in the tropics on a surf trip. Looked like nothing, not even any blood. 3 days later a hole opened up in my leg and all this shit was oozing out of it with stabbing pains and throbbing pains periodically. Other times felt like it had flies crawling all over it but there was nothing there. With a week or more of the trip left I just ignored it and kept surfing but it got pretty nasty.

Went to the doc back here and they said to keep it moist (but not with sea water), apparently the thinking has changed. I could cover it with water proof bandages after coating the wound in medihoney or paw paw ointment and go surfing so it was sweet. Took a few weeks, well maybe 2 months, to clear up and cost a bit cos those big water proof bandaid things are pricey. Oh yeah I took some antibiotics too cos it was pretty ugly.

Anyway, go see a doc I reckon jon. See if you can seal it with something when you're in the water too.

Hey Jon,

I agree with pepe above, many years ago I had a bitch of an ulcer on my knee for about a year. It would certainly remind me it was there. Eventually the pain got to be too much and I was given what I believe the same powder that pepe was. If memory serves it came in a little yellow plastic bottle with a red lid and you squeeze it to puff it on. I would do this at any opportunity any time there was weeping (which was often). Straight after a surf, I would pat it dry and puff the powder on religiously. Mine took about three months to heal but as he said, the flesh started to grow back little by little and eventually it healed completely with a nice circular scar as a souvenir.

The one thing about it was that it taught me to duckdive comfortably using my opposing knee out of necessity.

Before you treat it with the powder make sure all the yellow stuff is out, a long surf should soften it up,
then wipe or scrape it out., dress it so it can breath but keep the dirt out. Then for fucks sake stay out of the surf and dont wear shoes untill it looks better. If that gets into your big toe knuckle your gonna really have problems, like not being able to move your big toe.