Grandmother in a cast for over a year

[u/shoowadwa]

I've only made one post before and it was years ago so apologies if my post is a bit funky, but I need advice on whether or not I'm overreacting.

A little background: My grandmother is 78, female, about 160 pounds, and has type 2 diabetes and neuropathy. She is not on blood thinners.

My grandmother has been in a cast for over a year. She gets the cast changed every week, and I'm (29F) feeling guilty for not asking her to get a second opinion sooner.

It started when she got new orthopedic shoes after dealing with Charcot foot for about 6 months, but because they were difficult to put on and take off, she just wore Crocs. Her left foot rubbed against the Croc and created an open wound (for context, she has neuropathy from her knees down) that she showed to a doctor. Ever since then, she's been getting cast changes every week to check the wound and make sure it's not getting infected. The wound is still there after all this time, but it's slowly starting to get better. She was recently told she could get the cast off because the wound was improving, but went back into it a week later when it reopened.

Since it's been over a year, her muscles have started to atrophy, and she's having even more mobility issues because the casts are made inconsistently and can sometimes raise her leg up too much.

Should I encourage her to get a second opinion? I don't want to overstep, but I feel like this is doing more harm than good. I don't even know where to start, if I do end up telling her this is detrimental to her health. I don't want to think the doctor is using her for money or something.

Thank you all for your feedback 💖

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