"Injured Foot"

1.  Keep the area as clean as you possibly can.  Change the dressing as your physician has instructed, as soiled dressings harbor bacteria.  Unless it is a special type of dressing, also keep it as dry as you can, because bacteria love warm, moist, dark places. 

2.  Take your antibiotics as prescribed.  Even if it clears up and you still have pills left, continue to take the pills as your doctor has instructed. 

3.  Do you have diabetes?  Because diabetes can slow healing time, it is important to keep your blood sugar under control during this time.

4.  Are you taking steroids?  I am not saying to stop taking them, but just be aware that steroid medication can also slow healing time, as well as affect your blood sugar...another reason to monitor your blood sugar closely.

5.  How's your diet?  In addition to following diabetic guidelines (if that applies to you,) it is important to eat a sufficient amount of protein.  Protein is one of the building blocks for cell growth and repair. 

6.  Keep the leg elevated as often as possible.  Prop it up on a chair or some pillows.  This helps improve circulation, and therefore healing.

If your foot/leg continues to get more swollen, painful, reddened, hot to touch, or if you develop a fever, you need to let your doctor know right away.  You may not be on an appropriate antibiotic for what kind of infection you have.  Or, it may be spreading, in which case you will need more aggressive treatment.

What your doctor tells you, of course, takes precedence over what I am saying.   

Hope all turns out well for you.

Is your surgery recent?  Your surgeon should be your treating physician.  If you have hardware in your foot, it may need to be removed, especially it is unstable and near the infection in question.  If you feel you are not getting appropriate care from your surgeon you may want to contact an Infectious Disease specialist to review and manage your case.  Typically, these doctors will only take new patients upon referral from another doctor.  This can best be done by your surgeon or your primary care doctor.  Depending on the location of the infection, the type of surgery and location of same, the extent of the infection and previous treatments, your treatment for the infection could range anywhere from oral antibiotics for a week or so to IV antibioitics for multiple weeks and muliple future surgeries. 

It is difficult to answer.....

Best of luck.