Diabetic Foot Care in Thousand Oaks, CA
Unfortunately, foot problems are often a common result of having diabetes. As time goes by, it’s likely that diabetes can cause nerve damage, also known as diabetic neuropathy. This can lead to tingling or a painful sensation, and it may also cause you to lose feeling in your feet. The loss of feeling in your feet can become incredibly dangerous, especially if you can longer sense a blister or cut on your foot; this can lead to sores or infections.
There are many ways to maintain healthy foot care when dealing with diabetes. Most importantly, you want to ensure that you’re managing your blood glucose levels, otherwise known as your blood sugar. You also want to ensure that you’re checking your feet daily. As mentioned before, it’s important to recognize if your feet have cuts, sores, blisters, plantar warts, ingrown toenails, or other troubling foot conditions to stay ahead of the issue and prevent yourself from further harm. Along with foot checks, you should also wash and dry your feet daily using lukewarm water. It may also be useful in certain cases to moisturize your feet a few times a week, especially if you’re prone to dryness. Please be advised, however, to avoid moisturizing between the toes as they will not dry properly. Another rule you may want to follow is to ensure you’re cutting your toenails straight across. You should also refrain from digging into the sides of the toes; this will help prevent the development of an ingrown toenail. If you do happen to develop a corn or callus, never treat them yourself; seek the help of a professional. It may also be beneficial to look into socks made specifically for those with diabetes to help provide yourself with extra cushion. You may also want to refrain from walking barefoot, as well as avoid smoking, as it restricts the blood flow to your feet.
Diabetic Foot Complications
In certain serious cases, you may notice a cut, blister, or bruise is not healing after a few days. If this occurs, it’s important to seek the help of a professional. Other warning signs include redness, swelling, a callus with dried blood inside of it, or an infection that causes discoloration of the foot and an odor.
If you’d like more information on how to maintain healthy feet while living with diabetes, seek the assistance of a podiatrist who can provide you with the tips needed for healthy foot care.
An ulcer anywhere on the body is a sore accompanied by the deterioration of tissue at the site, penetrating through the epidermis, dermis, and then sometimes even the layer of fat underneath (the subcutaneous fat). The skin around the sore will be red and inflamed, and will obviously be sensitive and painful. Ulcers vary greatly in location and cause, however in podiatry we deal with ulcers on the foot, most commonly associated with diabetes.
The combination of diabetes and an ulcer is especially risky because of the nature of diabetes. Ulcers, like any laceration or wound, would heal naturally via the human body’s healing process. In this process the body will produce new skin cells to replace the ones lost, and barring a complication the healing process with completely heal the wound. Diabetes is a disorder that impedes the human body from completing this process as quickly and efficiently as possible. This generally prevents the wound from healing, and as time goes on the wound will frequently get worse (larger, deeper, more painful), and the risk of infection is heightened.
Now, ulcers are not necessarily caused by diabetes, however they are complicated by the disorder. Diabetes patients will frequently suffer from neuropathy and a lack of blood flow; the lack of blood flow contributing to the slower healing process, and the neuropathy contributing to the development of ulcers unbeknownst to the patient. What this means is, neuropathy will cause a patient to lose feeling in their lower extremities, and then as a result of many potential causes (tight shoes, friction from shoes or socks, or even heavy friction from a bed sheet) an ulcer can develop and the patient would not feel the pain associated with the ulcer as it forms. It can then go unattended and develop into a dangerous condition, especially when complicated further by a slow healing process.
Diabetic Foot Wounds
Diabetes affects more than 29 million people in the United States. Non-healing diabetic foot wounds result in five out of every six amputations. We take pride in our advanced and personalized diabetic wound care and limb salvage program. We offer the very latest medical and surgical treatment options for our diabetic wound care patients. In addition to treatment of current diabetic wounds, we also participate in the Medicare Therapeutic shoe program to supply diabetics with a pair of shoes and three protective inserts per year.
Venous and Arterial Wounds
Vascular leg wounds are debilitating and greatly impact daily activities reducing quality of life. Healing your leg wounds and getting you moving again is our number one priority.
Acute and Traumatic Wounds
Because of the severity of traumatic wounds and their vast range of etiologies, treatment can either be as simple as cleaning and dressing the wound, or it can be more extensive and require surgical intervention to close the wound and stabilize the patient. The treatment of traumatic wounds involves repairing damage to the body’s underlying tissue structures, removing any foreign particles and allowing for drainage of the wounds. All of these steps are essential to prevent the possibility of infection and to promote healing.
An ulcer anywhere on the body is a sore accompanied by the deterioration of tissue at the site, penetrating through the epidermis, dermis, and then sometimes even the layer of fat underneath (the subcutaneous fat). The skin around the sore will be red and inflamed, and will obviously be sensitive and painful. Ulcers vary greatly in location and cause, however in podiatry we deal with ulcers on the foot, most commonly associated with diabetes.
Diabetic Foot UlcerThe combination of diabetes and an ulcer is especially risky because of the nature of diabetes. Ulcers, like any laceration or wound, would heal naturally via the human body’s healing process. In this process the body will produce new skin cells to replace the ones lost, and barring a complication the healing process with completely heal the wound. Diabetes is a disorder that impedes the human body from completing this process as quickly and efficiently as possible. This generally prevents the wound from healing, and as time goes on the wound will frequently get worse (larger, deeper, more painful), and the risk of infection is heightened.
Now, ulcers are not necessarily caused by diabetes, however they are complicated by the disorder. Diabetes patients will frequently suffer from neuropathy and a lack of blood flow; the lack of blood flow contributing to the slower healing process, and the neuropathy contributing to the development of ulcers unbeknownst to the patient. What this means is, neuropathy will cause a patient to lose feeling in their lower extremities, and then as a result of many potential causes (tight shoes, friction from shoes or socks, or even heavy friction from a bed sheet) an ulcer can develop and the patient would not feel the pain associated with the ulcer as it forms. It can then go unattended and develop into a dangerous condition, especially when complicated further by a slow healing process.
