December 13, 2007
Hyperglycemia and DKA, Other
Question from Herndon, Virginia, USA:
My 16-year-old has what is thought to be a granuloma on her foot. It has grown in size over the last few years and has begun giving her problems. She developed a staph infection in September and though we cleared it up, it seems that she develops a new infection every couple of weeks. Her blood sugar is not well controlled and her last A1c was 10, down from 13, but still not good. The doctor wants to remove it as soon as possible. What do you think? Could the frequent infections be causing the high levels? Has this surgery been successful in the past? What other treatments have been shown to work? This has become a very painful issue for her, keeping her out of school and hindering her ability to walk.
Answer:
It is impossible to reply regarding the lesion on the foot as it requires visual diagnosis.
I can tell you that high blood sugar does impair healing and infections do cause high blood sugars. We are dealing with the epidemic of staph infections and these do seem to come in clusters in the same patient. Diabetes control is critical for infection control. Work hard at lowering the A1c; it is too, too high at 10!
LD
