To Have the Nerve..

This week I'm going to talk about Nerve damage.

I have nerve damage in my lower legs, from the knees down and majorly in the bottom of my feet. It got so bad that it was difficult for me to walk purely because I couldn't feel where my feet where going. My legs weren't so bad, I had patches where I could feel and others not so much.

It was bad (apart from the obvious reasons) because at the time I used to get little infections on the side of my toenails, when your blood goes high and you start try and get out one way or another. So half the time I couldn't feel them happening and I couldn't feel blisters building (I've had 2 cases of very bad blisters, one I had to go to A & E for because we thought I had blood poisoning, couldn't put any pressure on my foot at all).
 When things get that bad, your in the area of being in danger of having someone turn around one day and say we need to lop off that foot.
 I have this bad habit of breaking my little toes (although knock on wood I haven't broken any toes in months) bless their little cotton soaks but they've slightly discoloured now from so many breaks and all the blisters, but at the time I couldn't feel the proper damage. My little toenails used to fall off because of the damage.
 I stepped on a nail walking around town once, it wasn't till I got home that I realized that I had and not only that it had been poking me in the bottom of the foot too.

But also from this my circulation went to crap too, so my feet where always cold (not that I felt it) and my skin got so incredibly dry, so much so that I'd being smothering my feet with moisturizer on in the evening and I would wake up like nothing had been slapped on.

I started noticing that I was getting other places of numbness too, it started to spread.

I know thankfully don't have it as bad. It started to get better slowly but surly when my bloods started to get under control (and possibly when my Hypertension got under control to, it certainly helped the circulation). I still have the odd numb patch on my calf and shins and I don't think my feet will ever go back to normal .. as next week you will find out why, but everything has gotten so much better.
 It was really quit scary for awhile, certainly when they thought I had the blood poisoning. It's horrible when you can't feel the floor when you walk. But now I feel every small blister blooming, which is both good and bad lol.

I never would have thought that my blood sugar control would have an impact on my nerves, certainly never thought I would have the troubles I did have. As diabetics we have to be soooo careful with our feet, it's so easy to forget the things we most rely on from day to day. They can't be fixed if their not there anymore.

But my nerve damage did trigger something else that both heightened and made things so much worse.
Please look after your feet, pretty shoes are very nice, but your feet are more important, so be careful.