When monitoring your diabetes, a main concern of yours is probably maintaining a healthy blood sugar. While this is extremely important, it tends to overshadow another critical concern: monitoring your feet! It is imperative for diabetics to regularly see a podiatrist for many reasons.
The three most significant foot problems among diabetics include nerve damage, foot ulcers, and Charcot foot. A podiatrist is specially trained to handle all of these conditions! Therefore, regularly seeing a podiatrist is productive, in that it has the potential to aid in alleviating these problems down the road.
Nerve damage: Nerve damage, or neuropathy, is very common in the feet of diabetics. This results in a person simultaneously feeling pain and numbness in their feet, an extremely uncomfortable sensation. If this goes unchecked for too long, it can even result in complete numbness of the feet and toes. Due to the numbing sensation that neuropathy causes, a cut in the foot can even go unnoticed.
Charcot foot: Unfortunately, neuropathy in your feet doesn't only result in discomfort, but it can lead to a condition called Charcot foot. This is a progressive condition which involves the weakening of bones and joints in the foot. This can ultimately lead the extremely fragile bones in the foot to break and the joints in the foot/ankle to dislocate.
Foot ulcers: Foot ulcers are the result of a portion of the foot tissue breaking down, leaving a wound on the feet or toes. It is not uncommon for these wounds to grow larger in size and become infected. In the most serious situations, amputation is involved.
As you can see, refusing to see a podiatrist can result in very serious consequences!
Do yourself a favor and pay the podiatrists at Family Foot & Ankle Specialists a visit so they can identify any foot complications and produce a treatment plan for you!
