Hi all,
In 2002 I had radiotherapy to treat a Squamous Cell Carcinoma, which had appeared between the toes of my left foot in 1999. (I’m told that an SCC in the foot is about as rare as hen’s teeth) The treatment was successful and although I developed a secondary cancer (successfully dealt with surgically in 2005) the long-term side-effects of the radiotherapy, which began to take effect in 2004, are now starting to become more problematical.
The initial side-effects were that my toe joints ceased to bend and completely seized up. In 2012 it was discovered that I had a stress fracture of the fourth toe, which has never healed. Thereafter, I started to feel the cold in my toes (particularly during cold weather – which I had never done before) and began to experience pain in the toes; I was told by the specialist that the small blood vessels in my toes had been ‘fried’ by the radiotherapy, and that they were slowly dying; ultimately they would completely close up and the toes would die – in much the same way that frostbite affects the soft tissue of the extremities. To help control the pain I have Morphine delivered 24/7 via a pain-patch (only a small dose to take the edge off).
Unfortunately for me, as a side-effect of the surgery in 2005 to deal with the secondary Lymphatic cancer, I developed Lymphoedema in the same leg. So as and when the time comes and the toes die, I have been told that amputation cannot be carried out, as it would be impossible to stop the bleeding afterwards…. Devil / Deep blue sea. Rock / Hard place. You get the picture.
I fully understand what this means and that there is nothing the medics can do about it, and I can accept that. But my reason for posting is to try to glean information from either someone in the same position as I am, or a medical professional with specialist knowledge about this particular situation. In short, I want to know what sort of timescale I am looking at. At 60 years of age, I want to be able to make some informed decisions based on a reasonably accurate idea of how long this deterioration of the blood vessels will take before they cease to work – and none of the medical specialists I have spoken with, can give me an answer.
Can you?
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Best Wishes,
LuckyBoy.
