Quote:
Originally Posted by Marlene
Have you looked into using a knee walker instead of a wheelchair to keep him off that foot? Here's what they look like. You may be able to get a used one at better price. Don't know if insurance covers these but a few of my friends who have injured their ankles used them during recover to get around.
Here's what they look like:
http://www.amazon.com/Roll-A-Bout-Al...m/B001LJASQ0/2 |
Re: Knee walkers. We saw that a long time ago when he went to a previous podiatrist. Alan said "this is not for me".
One of you said:
"Is this an upward trend in the A1c? this is the high end, the very end, of what is now considered normal. When you are massaging the back is it down into the butt? I am thinking piriformis....though that is really deep and i am not sure you could do much for it....just thinking out loud.... could have more than one thing going on. "
Don't know anything about upward trend in the a1c but alan has had numerous 6 hour glucose tolerance tests over the years (remember he has had neuropathy for over 20 years). In the beginning his fasting sugars were in the 75 to 85 range.
He has NEVER gone over 80 or 85. Never. Only when we loaded him up with sugar one night (the night before another blood test), we wanted to see what would happen when the doctor took the blood the next day. And believe me, we loaded him up with cakes, cookies, pies, orange juice, whatever. Even the next morning (before the blood test), he drank orange juice and ate some cake after breakfast.
His sugar was about 90. So honestly, at this point, I don't see any diabetes connection.
Maybe someday in the future (if he doesn't lose any weight), but not now.
Now about the back massage.
I massage towards the buttocks. That how he gets relief. I treat it like I would treat sciatica. Down down down. He loves it.
When I massage his shoulders and upper spine, he just loves it because it feels good (has nothing to do with neuropathy).
But when I do the lower spine and massage the glutes and go down his body and especially when I carefully massage the legs (I know about clots and I showed his former chiro what I do and he said "you're good", well that's when he sighs and says "Oh my god, all my neuropathy pain is gone".
And last week Dr. Fred checked his circulation and found EXCELLENT BLOOD FLOW.
So when we come home from podiatrist today, I'll update you all
Melody
P.S. Mrs. D, you ask why the doctor debrides the callouses. That's because Alan makes callouses around the ulcer and that's when it hurts him when he walks. As soon as his podiatrist does his feet, he says "I feel like a new man"