News, Special teams fight diabetic amputations.

[Rob43]

WASHINGTON - A stubbed toe can lead to having your foot amputated? It can if you're a longtime diabetic. And it can happen fast.

"Tuesday in the office, they're fine. Friday, they're in the emergency room with gangrene in a toe," says Dr. Peter Sheehan, diabetes chief at New York's Cabrini Medical Center.

It's a little-known statistic: Foot problems — wounds that won't heal, infections, warping bones — are the most common reason diabetics are hospitalized.

And many of the 80,000-plus amputations of toes, feet and lower legs that Americans diabetics undergo each year are preventable, say specialists who brought more than 900 health providers to a meeting last week to figure out how to do just that.

Special teams fight diabetic amputations - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071001/ap_on_he_me/healthbeat_saving_limbs)

[Alice]

I agree with this...but not just for longtime diabetics.

I have a good friend who burned his feet on the beach last summer and was slow to get medical attention. They were pretty severe burns and he was in/out of the hospital for a long time.

He lost one toe, at least. Not sure where he ended up.

I'm pretty liberal in many ways, but I wear shoes everywhere...and in the house! (hit my toe on a box this morning...didn't hurt with my sandal, but would have been painful barefoot!)

I wasn't so careful in my younger days...it's a miracle my feet are in good shape. I also do my own pedicures and avoid the nail salons.

This is even more "at risk" for older diabetics with slower circulation and nerve damage. But, I saw the light early, I hope. I've never been one to jump in a lake, ocean with barefeet. Although I love the feel of grass on my toes, those days are over (and I'm now afraid of bugs!)