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4:23am March 31, 2015

Is it normal…

…for areas of (actual or potential) skin breakdown to itch?

Ever since my hospital stay, nurses and LNAs have been staring at two different points on my butt where I seem to be getting pressure sores.  One of them apparently looked so much like a bruise that they spent some time trying to convince me that really if I needed to report to them that someone was hurting me, I could report that at any time. Nobody was hurting me.  (They asked the same thing about the impressive array of cat bites on my legs.  After saying “Seriously, it’s just the cat when she gets angry” enough times, people started asking me “Do you have a cat or a tiger!?”)  I’m glad they ask, but they go about it wrong. They shouldn’t be asking it in front of caregivers, for one thing.

But anyway, everyone asks if my pressure sores hurt.  And every time, I say “Yes, but they itch way more than they hurt.”  They do actually hurt.  But the itching is far more annoying than the pain.

So has anyone else had pressure sores, bedsores, etc. that itch so much you wish you could just rip the remaining skin off (but, obviously, you don’t, or at least I don’t, even with dermatillomania.)?

And we’re keeping them under control (they’ve closed up and everything, and I’m using one skin repair cream and one barrier cream, both recommended by the hospital), so that’s not my question, my question is “Why all the itching?”

Notes:
  1. clatterbane said: For me, it’s not just with healing. Any kind of skin problem tends to itch as part of my pain perception, like chaoticidealism said. Never had pressure sores, but that sounds like an itch from healing. Hoping it gets less annoying soon!
  2. chaoticidealism said: Yes, itching is closely related to pain. Sometimes when I have an injury that ought to hurt, it itches instead because my sensory system is wonky.
  3. feliscorvus said: Itching of a wound generally tends to be a sign of healing, IIRC. Not sure if there’s anything pressure sore specific about it. Itching persisting long AFTER healing usually means nerve stuff, though.
  4. dannithepurplepenguin said: I asked the nurse this while she was here this morning. She says it’s definitely normal, and that it’s normal for any wound to itch while it’s healing. It was hard for me to not scratch mine when I had one a couple of weeks ago. Luckily cream helps.
  5. vladdraculea said: Idk, but in places where I have neuropathy, I sometimes itch. Otoh, my neuropathy isn’t related to bed sores, but probably to Beçhet’s. So could be a general nerve problem? Also healing skin sometimes itches, so maybe you’re skin is trying to heal?
  6. cirque-du-spoon said: I don’t really have anything to add but keep using the creams. I have contact dermatitis, it’s triggered by allsorts. My skin reaction is anywhere between hives and complete skin degradation and loss, and it looks raw and painful but oh the itching!
  7. arctic-hands said: Maybe it’s just like when a scab heals, some times it itches as part of the healing.
  8. withasmoothroundstone posted this