Diabetic Foot Management:

diabetic foot syndrome (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of my roles as a professional is to manage the complications of diabetes. Many times this is noted first by non-healing ulcerations (sores) on the lower extremities (feet and ankles). Here are some ways to prevent the manifestation of problems….
1.Check Your Feet Daily. Make it a routine to check your feet every night before bed. Get a hand-held mirror and look at your heels and the bottoms of your feet. I have seen and taken out nails and tacks and various other things imbedded for weeks in someone’s feet. Which leads to huge ulcerations and potential loss of limbs. If you can’t find someone who can.
2. Test all water with your hand before sticking your feet in. Neuropathy inhibits the ability to FEEL. Pat feet dry especially between toes. Small amount of lotion as long as the feet feel dry to the touch. No lotion between toes as this space does not dry well.
3. Cotton Socks and well-fitting shoes…Cotton absorbs moisture and your shoes should not rub any where. Pay attention to rubbing on the top of your toes. If you are diabetic, your shoes can potentially be the difference between walking on two feet or walking on one.
4. Never go barefoot. Even the tiniest sliver can cause great hardship in the diabetic foot that does not heal properly.
5. Bunions, calluses and hammer toes need to get fixed. See a Podiatrist early. These cause pressure points that can cause the breakdown of underlying tissue and eventually lead to diabetic foot ulcers.
6. After showering-when dead skin is softest-gently remove dead skin with a pumice stone or emery board-trim nails while they are soft-you can file the nail beds even. Just make sure you do not file too deep to open to the underlying tissues.
7. Manage your Blood Sugar Levels
God Bless You AND Yours

The Journey Begins…

It all started March 20th 2013. I had just arrived to work at the wound center checking in on everyone. My cell phone rang and it was the High School nurse. She told me that my son was complaining that he was dizzy after athletics this morning. This had been the second time in two weeks. She asked him if she could take his blood sugar. She was expecting it to be a low reading. He agreed and she took his reading. The machine showed HIGH. The machine reads up to 540. I knew this wasn’t good and my RN mind tried to critically think WHY? He had awoken up late and ran out the door with two hot dogs just to have something. (Not a normal happening). “Could it be the hot dogs?” It’s funny how you think when you know the reality. Off on a 25 mile or so drive to the school I went. I prayed all the way there this would be a fluke, rehashing the last few days to weeks over and over. He had informed me a week or so earlier that he had gotten dizzy so I gave him some AdvoCare protein bars to bring up a blood sugar then. Hypoglycemia or low blood sugar runs in the family.
That morning I had thought to myself “He sure has been sleeping a lot lately.” Explained it away with “but he’s 17 you know teenagers do that.” How could I have missed it?
We had been eating healthier and all of us had lost weight. Including my son (who was not overweight be no means of the definition). I had lost 37 pounds and he had lost 10 pounds. Eating right and being athletic that’s what happens, right?
He also told the nurse (you don’t tell your mom these things) that he was getting up several times a night to go to the bathroom. Would I have gotten it if I had known that? I am a nurse that deals with diabetes all the time and love diabetic education. How did I miss it?
Stop it mother! He’s your son and all the pieces weren’t available till now. He’s alive and that is what matters. 1 Peter 5:7 ESV – Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.
A few calls to the prayer warriors and a few texts to those that care. Off to the ER with a young man in Diabetic Ketoacidosis. Our journey begins…..

The Greatest Gift

As I sat this morning playing a game on Facebook, it said that I had received a free gift. When I clicked on the link to redeem my gift, it promptly told me, “Sorry, your gift has already been redeemed.” Of course at first I sat and wondered, why is it that they continually repeat, “you have received a gift” if in fact it is already been redeemed. You would think that, in this time and day, that the computer would be smart enough not to keep telling me I received a gift when I’ve already clicked on that link. Then I thought about Christmas being yesterday and that everybody probably has opened most their gifts by now. As a parent, there were times when I spent so much time and effort thinking about what to get someone, purchasing that item, and wrapping that item with great expectation of the coming excitement, for it to be less wondrous than my anticipation. And I looked back and I wondered about some of the gifts that I had given and what it meant to me to give them. I know there have been gifts that I have given that meant far more to me than what they meant to the one that received them. Then I started to think, what was my greatest gift I gave to someone? I thought about the one that I spend the most money on; I thought about another that I spent the most time on. I thought about the one that was the funniest, held the most meaning, or was just the most unexpected gift to the most un-expecting receiver. Along my journey of thinking about these things, I thought about what was the greatest gift that I received. I received a handful of gifts this year. All of them had special meaning, because all the givers mean something special to me.

Then my train of conversation, with myself, was quickly interrupted with this question. “Lauree, what was the greatest gift that you received?”

Well, Good morning God!

I went to my Bible and looked; seeking to find the one gift that God had given me that would be the greatest of all. John 3: 16 “for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” NIV. Hallelujah! What a gift to receive! From that one gift, I have received mercy, grace, forgiveness and eternal life. Romans 10:9 “… That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved”. And in verse 12 “for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him”. And in verse 13 “for whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”.

When God gave us his greatest gift, he changed our lives forever. With Jesus’ blood, God purchased believers from the slavery of sin. We all know that all of us are sinners whether you believe in God or not. But for those that believe in Jesus what we received was a forgiveness of those sins. By quickly acknowledging and asking for forgiveness, we no longer have to bear the shame/bondage of our sins. Many people spend every day of their life bearing shame, feeling guilty, and rehashing every single thing they have ever done wrong. This way of living life prevents them from ever becoming fully what God intended them to be. My greatest gift was from God. By giving this world his only son, not intervening in his crucifixion, and raising him again, I received mercy, grace, forgiveness and eternal life. I know I am not to dwell on all my imperfections, my wrong doings or my sins. When the devil steps in and tries to tell me otherwise, I know God says differently. I know that if I allow God to work in my life, guide my footsteps, and allow him to work through me to bless others; I will become what God has intended for me. Ephesians 2:4 – 7 “because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions-it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Jesus Christ”. And like playing the game this morning, my gift has been redeemed, but there is no sorry first. In the game I could play no longer, but with the gift I received from God I can continue. My “game” plays on. I don’t have to wait for tomorrow, wait for somebody else to gift me, or purchase more credits, for God through Jesus Christ gave me the gift to keep going forward.

God made you, He knows you, and most of all He loves you. There is no hole so deep that the hand of God cannot reach. He knows you are not perfect for all have sinned. Jesus’s own earthly family was muddled with many shady characters. God used the most unlikely people to do his work, even a dead man. You are precious in his sight. And yes He can even use you.

Lauree

Why?

I have always had a desire to help others see the potential that is hidden within themselves. In June of 2012 I left friends and family behind and moved from North Dakota to Texas. I spent 15 years in North Dakota raising 5 children and married to a wonderful man. Truth be told I got tired of being cold. I was born in Darnell Hospital Ft Hood Texas. I guess its true…You can take a girl out of Texas but you can’t take Texas outta the girl.

I moved in June to find work leaving my family in North Dakota. Long story short…I found work and four of my children joined me in August. however, for financial reasons my husband of 20 years returned to North Dakota to work. At this time he is still in North Dakota so that we can pay some financial issues off.

Just about the time things started looking up. (I had lost 37 pounds so that I could stay away from Type II Diabetes, my husband lost 25 pounds along with others, a home, a job, and paying off some debt) we got blessed with a 17 year old, six-pack, athletic son with symptoms of Type I Diabetes. This is our journey, inspiration and “mountain climbing” moments…in words.

You will find a little of everything in here. My goal….one word…one inspiration…one laugh…to make one person find within themselves a shining ray of hope!

God Bless

Lauree