Look at this site? http://telemedicine.org/stamford.htm Go down the left hand index to 'Diabetes in Skin Disease' And read the intro and the foreward! on that section. THEN look at pics and be aware of how bad it can get if you don't care for yourself. It can be SCARy stuffs....
Thing is, with peripheral nerves damaged, they aren't telling the BRAIN correctly, how to work out the vascular and lymphatic systems [those other 'systems' we have, besides the 'nervous' system?] what to DO properly. Ergo, you don't have to have diabetes to have either a potential or actual mess on your hands and feet.
THAT is why we either swell or not, feel hot when not, or cold when not. Listen to Nide, Cy, Mrs D, Echoes AND ALL about what they experience and connect it to what YOU feel.
The best treatments I've found are to slather good quality lotions [I like Eucerin Calming Creme and Bath Oils] liberally to keep your skin as healthy as it can be for the 'duration', which can last years. Soo? Spoil your skin, you can really be a skin 'diva' in this quarter, and IT PAYS OFF!.. Happy skin, Happier skin healing, and thus surface nerves... Would you want to be like a diabetic ignoring ulcers that put them in the hospital etc? Not me, hopefully not you. Read the above stuff, and use common sense... Good things to all! - j