Diabetic Foot: Neuropathy

Diabetes is a condition that affects the entire person. Your entire body is dependent on glucose to provide your system with the necessary energy to make it work. However, when insulin is not functioning in your body, this energy cannot be processed and used from your food. When blood sugar levels are high, it can lead to conditions such as neuropathy from nerve damage.

Neuropathy is a condition that causes tingling and eventually numbness in your feet and legs. This can be a very scary feeling for someone because you no longer can feel what is touching your feet. This can lead to ulcers forming as a result of a rock or any extra item getting inside of your shoe. For most people, when something gets inside of your shoe, you can feel it, remove it and move on, but for a neuropathic person, they can’t feel the item in their shoe and will continue to walk around with it and potentially causing a great deal of damage.

The most beneficial thing a neuropathic patient can do is look at their feet. At simple as this may seem, looking at your feet to see if there are any sores or open wounds on your feet. It is also important to look at the bottom of your feet. Standing and looking down at the top of your feet is not enough, a full visual exam is important, in order to be proactive and prevent ulcers from progressing to the point of infection that would require amputation.

It is also important to see your podiatrist on a regular basis. The podiatrist will be able to monitor the changes in your diabetes and inform you of any new precautions you need to be taking. If an ulcer does occur that you notice during your visual exam or that the podiatrist sees will need to be aggressively treated. There are several different ways that an ulcer can be treated including off-loading the area to decrease pressure on the ulcer, debriding an ulcer to remove the dead skin to promote healing, cleaning the wound and possibly using a skin graft to promote healing.

Diabetic ulcers are a condition that should be taken very seriously. If you live in the North Andover, Methuen, Bradford, Lowell or Boston Massachusetts area and you have diabetic neuropathy, our office staff would be happy to help you set up an appointment to see Dr. Wachtel. After your initial visit, an individualized plan can be made to help you be successful with your diabetes.