advice re managing tophi eruptions in fingers ,dressings etc

fairweather

Does anyone have any advice or tips ?

My 92 year old mother has tophi on her fingers ,it breaks thru skin and can become infected .

The DNT seem to lack expertise ( and TBH interest ) in dressing fingers and although I have become proficient myself it is very hard for my mother ( lives alone and has very little sight ) to keep the dressings dry .

HCP just suggest putting gloves on ( to go to WC ,make tea ,wash dentures ) but this is very hard for her as her knuckles are swollen and her fingers bent . Plus removing the gloves pulls the dressings off .

Just wondered if anyone had any ideas or could recommend any finger dressings ?

She does use finger stalls when eating but tends to forget to remove them and then the finger sweats and the wound deterioates .

stickywicket

Hello and welcome to the forum. Your poor mother! It sounds very painful and difficult for her. I have very deformed hands but not the problems with the tophi. The only thing I can think of that might help me if I were in your mother's situation would be maybe, when necessary, to put something like a pedal bin liner over each hand. It sounds odd but maybe it would give her the waterproofing she needs, be easy to get on and off and allow enough flexibility for her hands to do whatever was required. Not very dignified, I'm afraid, but life with arthritis rarely is. I hope someone else will come up with something better.

fairweather

Hello ,thank you so much for replying .
It's nice to have someone who understands ,they always look at me as tho I'm being "difficult" when I say mum can't manage gloves .
Actually she does put her hands in plastic bags - we use a roll of those food/freezer bags . ( and I must remember to pull some more off for her ! ) and she also wraps them in the plastic wrapper that her newspaper comes in .

I just think she forgets /can't be botherede sometimes .


I wish they made specially shaped finger dressings .
The compeed /hydrocolladoil ones they make for toes would be the right shape . She can't use them though because they wouldn't allow the wound to breathe .

dreamdaisy

Your poor mum, what a very difficult situation for her (and you) to manage. Although there are gadgets and gizmos galore for stuff sometimes great holes in provision suddenly appear and this seems to be one of them. It's so frustrating that those who should have some understanding don't appear to have a clue. I am so sorry, I have no practical ideas to offer :oops: but I will turn what passes for my mind towards this and see if anything occurs. I wish you both well. DD

fairweather

Oh what lovely people you are - more kindness and support from this forum than I've had in a year from NHS .

I'm beginning to think that I have to accept that it's a problem without much in the way of a soloution .
I'm also beginning to think that maybe the DN's and hospital people are frustrated because they know they can't help and that's why they're so disinterested .
Trying to be charitable here .

But it's good to "share" !

stickywicket

fairweather wrote:

The compeed /hydrocolladoil ones they make for toes would be the right shape . She can't use them though because they wouldn't allow the wound to breathe .

I'd never heard of these so I googled them. It seems they do make them in strips and they can be left on for up to a week - or until they drop off :roll: but it does say not to use on infected wounds.

I think the combination of 'waterproof' and 'breathable' is probably not a good one. Have you tried asking your local pharmacist or disability aids shop? They can sometimes be very helpful and usually have catalogues of stuff they mightn't necessarily have in stock.

Like DD, I shall keep thinking.

stickywicket

Hello again. I've sent you a PM.