Stabbing pain outside of wound

I've had an open wound for roughly 9 months now. Have had it professionally tended to by wound care. Recently I've been experiencing a "stabbing" like pain around the OUTSIDE of my wound, the actual wound doesn't hurt. I've noticed over the past month that Cold Water + Petroleum Jelly around the outside of it has usually soothed this, but recently all of my "techniques" have stopped working, It's been hurting for roughly 5 hours now and Advil hasn't prevented it at all. Any suggestions on a way to sooth this or what it could possibly be? Pain is a good inch or so away from my wound ...

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Since the stabbing pain is in the vicinity of the open wound that you ahd for such a long time, so it can be due to underlying infection of the tissue around the wound or due to involvement or compression of nerves around the area. The other possibility is of a muscular injury of the area. Application of mild corticosteroid cream and oral antiinflammatories like ibuprofen/acetaminophen are helpful. If the symptoms are severe then it will be best to consult a  doctor and get all these possibilities ruled out.

I hope it helps. Take care and please do keep me posted in case you have any additional doubts. Kind regards.