Diabetes
Management
Suzanne and Lauren are experienced in performing comprehensive vascular and neurological assessment for Diabetic patients.
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We will provide practical advise for our patients and communicate with referring health care practitioners to ensure your team is kept well informed.
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For people with diabetes, feet are often over-looked as the management of other aspects of diabetes takes higher priority. However, foot problems are extremely common and often debilitating for people with diabetes. Ignoring foot changes could be putting your valuable feet at risk of diabetes-related foot problems.
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The good news is that there are several preventative steps you can take yourself to help reduce the chances of developing diabetic foot disease. By following a daily foot care routine at home and having regular foot monitoring with your health professional, many foot problems are avoidable.
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Feet rarely complain, they just get on with doing their job of supporting you. Outside of putting on your shoes and socks each day, how well do you know your feet and are you putting your healthiest foot forward?
Why is foot care so important?
Neuropathy results in either pain, tingling, weakness or reduced sensation in the feet and lower limbs. A loss of sensitivity in the feet often leads to an abnormal walking pattern causing increased pressure in certain areas of the foot.
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The development of callus can be an indication of abnormal pressure being applied and continuing to walk unnaturally on an ‘insensitive foot’ increases the likelihood of ulcers forming and reduces the ability of the body to heal an existing ulcer.
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Because of the loss of sensation in the foot, a person with diabetes is less likely to realise when they have injured their foot, as they may not feel the pain. This means they are less likely to notice and treat an injury, allowing it to progress to a more serious, advanced stage