Posted on 10/01/2007 9:39:55 PM PDT by Canticle_of_Deborah
WASHINGTON - A stubbed toe can lead to having your foot amputated? It can if you're a longtime diabetic. And it can happen fast.
"Tuesday in the office, they're fine. Friday, they're in the emergency room with gangrene in a toe," says Dr. Peter Sheehan, diabetes chief at New York's Cabrini Medical Center.
It's a little-known statistic: Foot problems — wounds that won't heal, infections, warping bones — are the most common reason diabetics are hospitalized.
And many of the 80,000-plus amputations of toes, feet and lower legs that Americans diabetics undergo each year are preventable, say specialists who brought more than 900 health providers to a meeting last week to figure out how to do just that.
One recommendation: For hospitals to create diabetes limb-salvage teams.
It sounds simple. But it involves pairing specialists who seldom work side-by-side — like podiatrists and vascular surgeons — to shave weeks off the time it can take to get proper care for a festering foot.
"It gets them everything they need right away, without months of waiting (between doctor appointments) while the wound is going downhill," says Dr. John Steinberg, a podiatrist with Georgetown University Hospital's limb-salvage team.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsvine.com ...
man, as a type one myself it sucks to have a limb lose feeling.
bump & a ping
Tell me about it!!
Footlose and fancy free since last December!
I’m borderline.....but have to have two toes pinned next month...sure hope all goes well..
My father-in-law has almost no blood flow to his feet and had a serious ulcer. He got some kind of weird vaccum boot treatment that completely healed him, by increasing blood flow through daily pumping by the vacuum boot. I’m not sure where this treatment is available; I’m not sure who is a good prospect for this treatment; I’m not sure why I haven’t heard more about it.
All I know is that this man was healed. He had chronic problems for 5 years and amputation seemed inevitable. He now has had a normal, ulcer free, life for 18 months and doctors tell him that he can expect that to continue indefinately.
Carolyn
What do you tell somebody in that situation? Tore our hearts out.
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