Hi all,
my 97 year old grandmother has had a very sore and swollen leg with ulcers for a few months now-she cannot put any weight on the leg so is no longer walking when she used to be able to get around ok with a walker.
She saw a specialist and he said it won't get better on it's own as the blood is not getting through due to Peripheral arterial disease-she doesn't have diabetes but it sounds very similar to the problems diabetics get and the word amputation was even mentioned which is just terrifying.
She could have an angioplasty which might help or it might not or it might just work for a bit but at her age even an improvement for 6 months would give her so much better quality of life. She has decided against this (still very with it enough to make the decision) because you have to keep your leg straight for the procedure (or afterwards for a few hours) and this will likely be extremely painful. Although I'm sure they could do something to help the pain ie sedative/epidural?
She is ok atm with painkillers and nurses dressing it but I am quite concerned what may happen if this condition gets left and what the likelihood of it getting worse is, turning gangrenous and then inevitable amputation which just doesn't even bare thinking about.
Does anyone know how the condition progresses, should I be worried at this stage? I don't think it has got that much worse in the few months she has had it but it is very painful and I really think an angioplasty really is worth a shot. Any thoughts? TIA.