Really random question but it just confuses me how it ends up causing someone to lose a body part
In: 9014
Can confirm with the doc. Lost my toes last year from what started as a very small blister. I am steroid indused diabetic from prednisone medication. I have small amount of feeling in both feet but like the doc said bumping into things is now very dangerous. I am just finally almost back to walking as the wound from toe amputation is almost healed.
At the same time, how can some people eat a mountain of sugar daily for years (in some cases decades) and not be diabetic?
I used to work in a microbiology lab, and we would cut up specimens from surgery and try to grow out whatever bacteria was infecting them.
I once got a toe from a diabetic patient that had been amputated in surgery. As I went to start hacking with the scalpel, the toe twitched. And it kept twitching.
Finally after a minute or so of watching it and saying “wtf is going on?” I went in and starting cutting. As soon as I made the first incision, maggots started squirming out of the hole.
I invited the surgeon that sent the toe down to come look, and he gathered the maggots into a sealed tube and took them back up to show the patient why they need to take care of their wounds.
T1 (juvenile onset) diabetic for 37 years.
I’ll explain it simple since I have lost half a foot and 2 toes.
If your blood sugar is too high too often and you have poor blood sugar control for too long you end up getting peripheral neuropathy. You lose feeling in your feet and legs. Extremely poor circulation.
Without feet checks you might not see or feel when you step on a piece of a broken plate like I did, and since there is poor circulation you don’t heal as well. Or if you get injured you might not feel it. I dropped a bowling ball on my foot once and didn’t feel it.
Because you lack circulation you don’t heal fast at all. The foot infection could lead to bone infection.
If you get an infection in the bone (osteomyelitis) and/or gangrene they have to amputate the region to avoid infection or gangrene to spread throughout the foot or leg.
There have been lots of jokes about “beetus” online and Wilford Brimley jokes but for long term T1 diabetics and older T2 diabetics it can be devastating and deadly. It’s why the mortality rate for T1 diabetics is so high. So I don’t think the jokes are funny.
I damaged my body as well with cigarettes for 30 years which causes other complications including neuropathy. Quit 3 years ago. The combo of smoking and poor control can lead to heart disease, asthma, and the aforementioned.
A doctor here, and I’ll keep it simple for you all.
It’s a bit long because I tried to use the simplest language I can, so please bear with me. Also, do pardon the grammatical/spelling errors if any.
In diabetes, we’ve got higher than normal level of sugars in blood. Due to these high levels of sugar, some complicated reactions take place in the body which also cause the levels of cholesterol to rise. This excess cholesterol is deposited in our arteries. (Arteries are blood vessels which carry blood full of oxygen to different organs).
This cholesterol deposition causes arteries to become narrow. Sometimes it can lead to an artery getting completely blocked. Due to this, the group of cells that the artery gives blood to don’t receive oxygen (because there’s no blood reaching them), and those cells die.
Now, all living cells in our body need oxygen to survive. And our nerves are made up of these cells. Hence, nerves need oxygen to survive too.
In diabetes, the nerves which supply our toes start dying because the arteries supplying them with oxygen rich blood are blocked.
Since there are no nerves alive left in our toes, therefore we won’t be able to feel a thing in our toes.
So if we get a cut injury or a prick injury, we won’t feel it. And since we won’t feel it therefore we’ll not even know we’ve got an injury.
We all know what happens to neglected wounds and injuries. Bacteria start growing in the neglected wound. And since our blood already has high level of sugars, the bacteria have more than enough nutrition.
(Edit): The tiny blood vessels supplying the tiny muscles and bones in our toes, they get blocked too. As a result, the muscles and bones die too, further providing a very fertile ground for bacteria to grow.
These bacteria grow and infect our toes. Ultimately we would have to chop off our toes. And if this problem is neglected for long enough, this bacterial infection spreads through the foot and leg. And the only way of preventing further spread is chopping off the affected part.
Ex is diabetic. Had a serious accident. Damaged his foot. He completely ignored it. I begged him to go and get it looked at. A month or so later he lost his foot at 43. This stuff is no joke and if you have diabetes please be mindful of your feet and get them checked for even minor issues… no matter how ‘tough’ you are. This could have been avoided if proper care was pursued as early as possible.
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