pyoderma gangrenosum

Thanks for the reply. I understand your concern and cautious approach. I'm fortunate to have been treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, one of the top 17 hospitals in the country. Very progressive and a real "brain bank". I think the key to my success with the graft was about a month of extremely diligent and meticulous wound care prior to the graft. I had the same two wound care techs that did it exactly the same way every day and it passed muster with my dermatologist and the plastic surgeon and I was very concerned about the whole thing, are they doing everything right? Well, so far so good. The donor site has heald very well. I was worried about trauma of any kind affecting some other place on my body, but have been lucky so far. I keep my fingers crossed that we have it under control. I know this is one of those diseases that has a mind of its own and could crop up at any time. I still have some small lesions that have appeared since the graft and they are very slow healing. We're watching them closely. I use clobetasol, azathioprine, doxycycline, gabbapentin, colcrys, prednisone and a boat load of OTC stuff. Am also a type II diabetic on insulin due to the prednisone.

Sure am sorry you are having to go through all this too. What a pain!! We don't know what caused mine. Although I have been having autoimmune type stuff for several years before the PG. Also when I first went into the hospital they had me on the "antibiotic encyclopedia", sort of "lets try them all and see what works". The only problem with that is if something was working they didn't have a clue which one it was. That wasn't at Vandy. Two months in other facilities without a diagnosis and then by a fluke I ended up at Vandy and they had a diagnosis and treatment plan within a week. Wish I had gone there first. As far as the Derm Docs, I see Dr. Hennings and Dr. Strickland out at 100 Oaks. My Plastic Doc is Dr. Madden, great guy. Good luck with your colonoscopy, hope all goes well for you and they can find what is causing your PG.

I had Pyrodermal Gangranosial in my foot right after I was siagnosed with Crohns Disease.  I had to recieve corticosteroid shots into my foot where it started to create ulcerations.  The pain was so bad that I had to be belted down on the table as my Dermitologist inserted about 40 shots around the infected area.  I still have scars, but I do believe that P.G. can be caused by taking steroids, such as  Prednisone.