Sea Ulcers
Mountainman you gotta post a picture of the scab circle you peel off,(or am I the only one that does that).
Antiseptic powder applied several times a day will clear it up,
Thx for reply. Not sure how to add photo on this forum. Your help be appreciated. They are now scar tissue that is quite fragile. Done the antespic powder plus Betaine also. Seems best way is keeping out of water for a while as these things heal opposite to a normal sore as in they heal from the inside our. They look as if healed but still quite painful deep in which tells me I have a couple of weeks out of water yet. Missed some bloody good surf which frustrates me to no end. If I went back in prematurely I would be back at square one. Not willing to risk that as cyclone season is not far away and I want these things to hold together. In meantime you even have to be careful having a shower as skin loss or what is simply scare tissue can just wash off in your hands. They were approx size of 50 cent piece and right side almost to bone depth. Have the outside thick scare tissue slowly closing in but they are quite soft in the middle. Now 5 weeks out of the water. Had them since very early September thx to 3 x 7 hour sessions in a row at Crescent Heads. Started from rear pad on board. Hopefully back after the school holidays. Also less fibreglass in the water then so that is a plus.
Ditch the betadine, try medicinal honey (if your staying out of water), or old school peroxide if it get festy. Even dodgy old talcum powder will dry them out when your not in water, just need to keep it dry when not in water. My grandfather used to put metho on them when i was young hurt like hell.
Tea tree oil is good as well
Where are the photos and the circular scab which is the only joy of sea ulcers, just paste the photo maker sure its not to large
This could be legendary , my ulcer is bigger than your ulcer LOL my scab is bigger than your scab
Thx. Appreciate your comments. Scabs are now gone over last 6 days but the edge of the craters are clearly defined. Taken since the 3rd of December 15 to get to this stage. Yes hanging in out for waves and sad that I have missed the last 2 major wave events on the Sunny Coast. Yep. Bought some Medicinal Honey mixed with a healing gel specifically for Ulcers in preparation for next time I enter the water should they hollow out again. As noted previously the scabs are now gone but only to be replaced by scare tissue that decintigrates as soon as you hit the water which starts the process all over again. The outer crater remains firm as hard scare tissue has formed and is slowly closing over the soft inner skin. Dealt with these mongel things for well over 45 years but never at this size. Have many scars to back that. Hopefully another 2 -3 weeks of suckling it up being out of the water will allow me tobe back in the water. Fitness at my age will be testing after so long out. Travelling the 2 & 1/2 hours from Toowoomba for a surf must be worth the bigger picture. As said I cannot find how to upload photos to forum. Happy to send direct to your email address if you wish. Cheers.
Went out again yesterday after 10 weeks out of water. These mogrel things on both knees looked nicely healed. Within 20 minutes of being in ocean the skin simply decintigrated leaving me back to how they begun, now only to deeper and larger in circumference. Got out yesterday with blood running down legs this time round. Now trying Medihoney Wound Gel made by Comvita. See if this makes a difference to the healed buggers.....I guess in another 6 to 12 weeks. Not cheap!
Pissed off big time. Fantastic surf on the Sunny Coast (Noosa) over the last few days as temptation got the better of me in these large swells from the Cyclone. Went to Noosa with my Ulcers covered thickly with bandages, strapping tape and with knee support stockings over the top. Thought that may save me. Nup. Not at all. Most painfull surf I ever had plus the stockings and bandages including the strapping tape under the knee stockings prevented me from even being able to get up on my board. Three waves out of ten I made it to my feet and then had a great time then. Basically now back to square one after yet the last 3 weeks out of the water after 2 months previous. This has been now going on for well over 6 months. Really I am now at witts end. Tried everthing. Using now large coverings with medicinal honey as done over the kqst 3 weeks. Hard to even bloody well walk neverlone surf. Questioning at nearly 60 years old if worth pursuing a 45 year fun sport hobby. Black Dog is now lurking. The ocean is my only escape but now taken from me thanks to these 2 x 20mm holes in each knee that never seem to heal. Had sea ulcers in the past but nothing like this. Scars prove that. If anyone has some positive answers I would love to hear it provided they are positive answers. Now questioning my ability to surf in the future. Nothing left in the tank! Signing off. Mountainman.
2x 20mm holes jeezus....have the docs taken any cells for testing ? something not right .
mate get antiseptic powder and waterproof band aids best of both worlds learn to duck dive with foot
Mountainman,mate feelin for ya,been down your road years ago and im sure its been posted somewhere here before but lost in the archives no doubt so im sure others will chirp in but heres my 2 cents worth.Go and get a zinc test done at the chemist ,your more than likely real low on zinc so go get some into you,also lysine and magnesium and vit bs and c.Your immune system is obviously down so build it up and you will have to stay out of the surf till its completely healed.I had a similar thing years ago and was told how to fix it but cut corners and ended up with an ulcer that you could put a 10 cent piece in and i recon it took 6 months to heal and even then the skin was still fragile so forget surfing till its healed and work on your diet and take those tablets...worked for me and i havent had an issue since...you will beat this and have a better immune system but stay with it ..life style change.Good luck....
You need neophrene type knee support - provide protection - go to a chemist. On my Indo strips I have taken a fabric one in case but never needed it. Put some vaseline over the wound too in the water so there is no friction - under the neophrene support of course. By the way current thinking is to let wounds heal moist - not form a dry scab. Hence the plastic skin see through type bandages
hey mountainman, as a serial return to the surf too early offender I'm feeling for you, only had small issues with ulcers though so can't help much.
the guys above seem to have some good advice, I'd recommend the knee supports for sore knees mentioned probably are the go, kinda wetsuit material stuff, fluffy inside.
I'd just add, on my travels I aquired some waterproof spray on skin stuff from a german learner chick, she couldn't surf for shit but those Germans always have some good shit, material and mental . I haven't used it much but it definitely helps. I haven't seen it in oz but it was by the german version of elastoplast so shouldn't be toi hard to track down. much better than those supposed waterproof bandaids, a combination could be the go
the advice above to try to heal properly is probably best, but you already know that
Thx guys, some good tips here. I have thought about going to Zee at Noosa and see if they have some of cuts that can be stiched to size. Short of that Clarke rubber. Good advice frog re neoprene supports. Interesting that Zinc plus other vitamins were mention also. Suspected that for a while and had just started on Zinc Tablets twice daily approx a week before the temptation of hitting the ocean at Noosa last Friday got the better of me. All the advice above is well appreciated and taken on board. In short looks like a long stay out of the water till properly healed this time as all I am doing is sending myself further backwards with these mongrels getting bigger and deeper around the scar ring each time. One other thing since done is that I removed the Tail Pad which was the inial cause back early last September. Just gunna use thin a coating of wax on that area of me stick instead. Thx guys. You have all been helpful.
Mountainman wrote:Thx guys, some good tips here. I have thought about going to Zee at Noosa and see if they have some of cuts that can be stiched to size. Short of that Clarke rubber. Good advice frog re neoprene supports. Interesting that Zinc plus other vitamins were mentioned also. Suspected that for a while and had just started on Zinc Tablets twice daily approx a week before the temptation of hitting the ocean at Noosa last Friday got the better of me. All the advice above is well appreciated and taken on board. In short looks like a long stay out of the water till properly healed this time as all I am doing is sending myself further backwards with these mongrels each time with them getting bigger and deeper around the scar ring. One other thing have since done just yesterday is that I removed the Tail Pad which was the initial cause of these back early last September. Just gunna use thin a coating of wax on that area of me stick instead. Thx guys. You have all been helpful.
frog wrote:By the way current thinking is to let wounds heal moist - not form a dry scab.
yep, this is spot on, was mentioned in a previous ulcer thread
chin wrote:It's got me fucked why Betadine is sold in pharmacies as a wound treatment, it's toxic to cells in open flesh.
In hospitals it's mostly used on skin to kill fauna prior to surgery.
The latest thing in the health industry for healing wounds is what's generally referred to as "wet wound healing"
This is where the wound is covered by a square, or rectangular dressing pad which has an adhesive margin around the outside which seals the dressing to the skin all the way around.
The interesting part is that the body's own immune system does the healing in a sealed environment.
The area under the dressing becomes very wet and mucky looking, quite a bit of pus and looks bad, but after a few days the dressing is removed and the wound heals incredibly fast and isn't inflamed by infection.
My wife gets the dressings from work, but I think they are available in chemists now in various sizes.
Wet wound healing has revolutionised wound care in the health industry, I'm wondering if some of the other methods mentioned above like honey actually work on the same principal and it's not the actual honey doing the healing but the fact that the wound is sealed allowing the immune system to do it's job.
Thx Synchrodogcal. Yep agree re Betadine. Used that back in September together with the Antiseptic Powder. This dried both of them out only to have a 6 weeks of scab leaving scar tissue under which lasted 5 minutes in the water. Could not even have a bloody bath without going back to square one. After research and forum fedback I have taken to moist the healing method with results of late getting a layer of skin with no scab in 10 days. Stupidly I was tempted to surf again last week in which clearly not enough skin at that time. I tried water proof large Bandaids plus strapping tape plus cotton support stockings on that day. Big mistake. All that did was to make it impossible to get up on my board except for 3 waves over 3 hours. Yep, made a fool of myself in doing so. I have taken notes from threads from this forum including staying out of the water until these things have healed. I think with at least 3 layers of skin plus in future to use plastic skin for base protection going forward along with neoprene type knee stockings. Those stockings are not cheap but neither is the continual basket of bandages. Using Medihoney now keeping these moist until the clean skin returns. Then as suggested in the threads I must allow time for these arsehole things to fully heal before entering the ocean again. Yep that hurts, but have to bite the bullet before these reach a dangerous point of exposing bone. Hopefully they can be good enough along with the suggested coverings by other on this forum for the early winter swells around Crescent Heads. I also removed the Tail Pad which caused this problem initially last September over 3 fun days at Crescent. In the meantime there ain't much to do in boring Toowoomba. Used to hit coast for days at a time regulsrly. Now becoming a distant memory but such is life. Going on 60 now and it is harder to maintain the fitness required for surf not withstanding other injuries that surfing is great exercise for. It is valuable to get this positive and informative feedback from all that have contributed. Thx guys. Be back one day in the line up!.
Bloody wretched Sea Ulcers. Have 2 huge ones on knees since early September. Tried everything except the Medicinal Honey. Just bought a tube of this and not cheap. This latest round of surfing 3 weeks ago has brought these back to square one thus extended time now out of the water. Pisses me off big time particularly when I know we have an increasing swell and ain't nothing I can do about it. Skin seems to cover these things only to dissolve after 5 minutes in the water. Unfortunately now have to bite the bullet and let these 20mm size things get past the scar tissue stage. Surfed for over 45 years and have never had to deal with such large Ulcers. Have many scars from smaller ones but they did not dry dock me. Normally travel from Toowoomba daily to surf the Sunny Coast when we have swell and right wind conditions which initself kills the friggen boardom of living in this boring town. To miss out on a swell event is really eating at me. Anyway at least not having to deal with the wayward holiday crowd with so much fiberglass in our waters this time of year. Be back by cyclone swell time hopefully. Hard to kep fit in the meantime. Hate that first rusty day back but the bigger picture lays beyond. See you all soon at Alex or Noosa weather hate me or friend. Mountain Man from Toowoomba signing off. Enjoy the bloody crowds this holiday season. Cheers.