hip replacement & painful hard skin on soles of feet

[ibbydibby]

My DM (81) used to be very active, and in her words "whizzing" off all over the place, usually on her bike, shopping in town, visiting friends etc. In 2008 however she had a hip replacement, made a good recovery, hip dislocated 5 weeks after surgery. Put back in, and contiued to make good recovery. She has since had 2 dislocations in 2010 and 2 in 2011. Surgeon not keen to do revisionary surgery of hip unless dislocates again, due to the fact that this is major surgery, and she is 81.

Which brings me on to hard skin - she has a brace on her hip to keep it in place and this seems to affect her wallking gait. The different pressure on her feet has I think resulted in the build up of hard skin on her feet. She goes to chiropodist once a month, but recently her walking has become very restricted because of the pain in her feet. It is very sad to witness her shuffling around.

Just posting in case anyone has any advice to offer please? She has mentioned feet in the past to her GP, but he just said that she was doing the right thing in going to chiropodist.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Might she be referred to a podiatrist? They're experts in gait and could possibly advise, provide inserts, etc. I think that a chiropodist would only be able to treat the hard skin itself - i.e. the symptom - but a podiatrist might be able to address the cause.

Caveat - I only know about this in relation to children rather than the elderly.

Thanks, TheDog.

Knew that I had forgotten something...she has had some foam inserts made by podiatrist, also recently had shoe built up by podiatrist, after consultation betwee pod. and orth surgeon. She is still in so much pain though. She is due to go to podiatrists this week to pick up shoes (had to return for a bit of stretching) and I am going to encourage her to discuss this then. I just feel she is at the end of her tether and so frustrated at her limited mobility.

have a look at footcare4me.com. They have several good creams for hard skin on feet. Ureka 25% urea cream is a very good one.

Flexitol is the business for hard skin, as many a MN thread attests.
If the pain is due to the skin cracking, it will encourage healing of the cracks as well as reducing the hard skin that leads to them.
Actually, I'm pretty sure it contains urea - not sure of the %.
might give pensheric's suggestion a try!

Smother on lots of vaseline on the feet (greasy I know but it works brilliantly) and simply put an old pair of socks on over it.Bedtime is a good time to do this! I am a nurse and we used to always do this when I worked years ago in an old peoples home.

thanks for these suggestions - much appreciated!