My husband went to his doctor yesterday. They told him his feet were in excellent condition. And I said, "with all those lumps and bumps????" I almost laughed! However, upon further explanation on his part....the "excellent" condition is the fact that there are now no open boils or open sores (ok....can we just say 8 days in the ocean water will heal most anything?) And what good timing on his part....to visit the doctor after he's had is feet soaking in "salt water" for 8 days!
Yet I do not see how any doctor could actually say to this man "excellent condition" when his feet still look worse than the photos I posted on the side of this blog. Note, those are NOT his feet...just similar photos I pulled off the web. His feet have many more nodules and lumps and little yellow pointed boil type things on them. He has been hobbling since Thursday night and was hobbling when he went in for the doctor's visit.
I think I have less and less confidence in physicians as they continue to look at one single element of what's going on with him and not with the entire picture. And they have absolutely no idea what it does to say something like this to a man who is in denial that he even has diabetes!!! OIY!
The good news, ok, the really great news is that they also told him his insurance will cover one pair of shoes and a free shoe fitting and they scheduled that for him. I, of course, have been telling him for 3 years that he needs to get diabetic shoes made for his feet, but he has never shown the least bit of interest. But now he is excited to get special shoes made. If only they would tell him to wear diabetic socks...ok, I can at least hope they will do that when he goes in for a fitting. He absolutely refuses to wear socks, even in the dead of winter when there is 3' of snow on the ground!!! Ever since I met him, he has been wearing "boat shoes"....sort of look like the old penny loafers, some call them deck shoes I think, with no socks. At least he will be getting fitted shoes and I truly hope they help him.
The other problem is that they told him he has a bunion and have started treating him for that. He has forgotten that a different doctor told him it was his tophi gout. So it will be interesting to see what happens with the area that is so infected at the moment. For some reason, I don't think a bunion would get infected the same way tophi gout does. But again, I'm not a doctor and he's not going to listen to me. However, I must say, I'm delighted that he at least listened to the doctor yesterday and actually scheduled the appointment with the people to get fitted for shoes. That's progress in my book!
But it still seems like we are treating the end result, not looking at what the cause is. As long as his sugar levels remain out of control, I don't see any means of improving what's going on. But at least he's listening to suggestions for relief on the results. I'll take baby steps at this time!
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I'm going to add a comment to my own post. We just got back from getting groceries. For the first time ever, he could not make it through the store. His foot was hurting so bad, he went up front and sat and waited while I finished shopping.
We both hate going to the grocery more than anything in life....so much that it's become a joke between us and our friends just think it's hilarious. So I had to tell him that next time, he can ride around in the motorzied wheelchair....there is no way I'm letting him off the hook on this one! LOL! He's just going to have to suffer in pain and go get groceries with me!
On the other hand, I think his feet may be worse than even I suspect if he can't walk that far at one time. Just so sad.
Wish I could shop for you guys because I love to grocery shop. You can tell I don't get out much :)
Maybe those new shoes will help? Hope so anyway! My hubby has to sit it out at stores sometimes too because of fatigue or leg cramps or neuropathy problems (the list goes on and on). Of course Mr. Denial won't wear decent shoes. He'll buy a $10 pair of canvas sneakers and then walk around like an 80-year-old-man (he's 48). Aaarrgggh! On his bad days it seems he walks about an inch an hour, and if I try to speed him up to two inches an hour he gets mad at me.
It was an unwelcome milestone for me to deal with the first time he had to sit down, but most times he still does okay. Hopefully next time you grocery shop your husband will not be hurting and can suffer right along beside you :)
You know, you hit the nail on the head. The word is "milestones". That's what I've been doing the past couple of years, hitting milestones as he progresses through this disease. Milestones that tell me "no more this" "no more that". It's hard because I thought for so long that I had to give it all up, too, because he asked me to. But I'm starting to realize that no, I don't always have to do what he wants. I can keep on doing things and don't have to stop just because he asks me to.
For some reason, I just don't think he's going to ask me to stop grocery shopping. LOLOL! And I'm not about to let him off the hook on this one! So we will continue to laugh about how much we hate to go and he can go sit and wait for me!
But you know what...maybe next time I will forget to pick up the bag of potato chips he so desparately thinks he has to have! :o)
And yes, if you "love" to grocery shop, then you need to get out more often! LOL!
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