Hi Mandy,
I too want to welcome you to HW. As you can see from the posts we really have a great group of people on this forum.
I can relate to the cellulitis, I just spent 8 days in the hospital for IV antibiotcs for it, plus another 10 days at home using my port in my chest for the antibiotics. I have been battling this mess for about 2yrs. When it hit this last time, it was awful. Before I knew what was happening my entire bottom half of my right leg looked one big red open sore with nothing but open oozing blisters. It was very painful to say the least. Some of the blisters were fairly deep and while I was in the hospital I saw a wound care dr who looked after it. She too used that silver creme to help get my leg healed. My legs always peels like a sunburn after a round of the cellulitis and the skin is red whether there is a fever in the legs or not.
I wear the compression hose which helps with the circulation in my legs and they do help keep the swelling down too. I had been lax about wearing them, mostly because my legs were not swelling as bad. They are a real pain to put on, I always say its like putting a girdle on thats about 4 sizes too small,lol. With an open wound such as yours, I am not sure they would help you at this point, but when it heals I would sure talk about the compression hose to my dr. My drs have advised me that when my legs are swelling to keep off of them and keep them elevated. I get alot of leg aches and the compression hose sure help with that.
My husband has terrible legs one from a blood clot many years ago. He has lots of problems with that leg too. He ended up with some sort of an infection in the leg. While in the hospital the nurse every day packed his legs with a gauze that had medication in it. She made a wick type thing with it too. Every day this was done. His leg healed from the inside out and did very well. He had a home health nurse that came to our home every day, and she packed his leg. It was truly amazing to see how big the hole was in the beginning until it was totally healed. Even when the hole was very small it blew my mind how much gauze she could pack in that tiny spot. He claimed it did not hurt having this done.
You really have a terrbile complication with healing by having diabetes. It really plays a huge role with the healing process as you already know.
All you can do is give every day your best. Even when you are in bed or having to keep your legs elevated please continue with your exercises to help keep you strong. Your son needs his Mom badly. The 8 days that I had to lay in the hospital bed really took alot of my strength away. I am not at full throttle so to speak now, but I am working on it. Its really harder to bounce back at my age.
Please keep us posted on what your dr tell you. Hugs, Susie