Fragile/dry/brittle skin on legs

I'm 1m1w out from surgery and have an interesting problem.

(I will be asking my PCP + surgeon about this as I see them both in the next 5 days -- just wondering if anyone else has experienced this)

Backstory -- prior to WLS, my type 2 was probably getting more and more out of hand.  My fasting glucose was 140-170 (where I had been able to keep it 90-110 with medication for years).  I started getting physical side effects related to diabetes.  Most notably (for me) were the discoloration of my lower legs and blisters on my lower legs.  While these are both commonly side effects of diabetes, I never had them diagnosed or looked at by my doctor out of either embarrassment or complacency or simply being resigned to my fat fate.

At any rate, I am far more concerned about my fate today, so here is what happened.

I was inspecting my legs two days ago and noticed that the skin seemed dryer than normal (it's been super dry and I'm bad about lotion and I am still not getting enough liquid for my size most likely).  The more i looked, it looked like the dry skin was 'sloughing' off (for lack of a better word) and maybe I just need to exfoliate a bit to improve the skin.  So I attempted to do some light exfoliation and I exfoliated a big chunk of my skin off in the process (down to raw/new skin -- it kind of stung).  Now the part around the wound was actually exfoliated and is nice smooth new skin.  However the ripping a hole in my skin kind of bothered me.

So, some questions -- is this normal with WLS -- brittle/fragile skin on the legs?  Is this more a result of WLS or residual Type 2 effects?

Other question -- if my leg conditions were caused by diabetic neuropathy and diabetic blisters -- do these conditions or side effects reverse themselves?  Will my lower legs return to a normal color as I continue to heal?

Thanks in advance -- I saw some stuff about fragile skin on the arms with a search, but couldn't find anything about the D2 effects and legs.

Hi Joshua. 1st congratulations on taking a big step to improve your life with weight loss surgery.  Although I have a background in skin/wound care, I will only recommend that you see your PCP or whom ever you see to control your diabetes ASAP, and run this situation by your surgeon as well. You are still early out in your journey, with so many changes happening to your body. Infection would be a serious complication.

Good luck and please keep us updated on your progress!!

Patty

OMG, this is NOT normal for WLS happenings.  do contact your doc asap.  

Dry skin can be remedied with more fat and fluids, however chunks coming off sounds like something from a horror movie.

I might have exaggerated "big chunk" -- it was probably 1cm x 0.5cm.  Felt big at the time.  I will be talking to my doctors about it.

I agree with everyone that posted so far. Talk to your doctor. Dry skin is kind of "normal" after weight loss surgery-you are typically struggling with getting in fluids, and limited in the amount of fat you can eat.

I will say that I have chronically dry skin, but that is more genetics then WLS related. I've had dry skin since i was younger...except on my T-zone which gets mixed patches of dry and mixed patches of oily skin (yes i'm so lucky) lol

Scott

I had diabetic neuropathy answer discoloration in both lower legs  before surgery. The neuropathy never improved. The discoloration got a little better, but is still there. We did a good job of ******g ourselves up, didn't we?

I never had the skin peeling issue, so check with your doctor. Make sure all your vitamin levels are in the upper part of the normal range. And make sure you are getting enough fat in your diet. it will keep your skin from drying out too much, and give you a nice shiny ciat.

I echo everything what the others have said so far. One thing that came to mind is that you need to make sure that you do not invite a bacterial infection to set into areas where there is open skin. Check diabetes.org for advice for skin care. http://www.diabetes.org/living-with-diabetes/complications/s kin-care.html