I get many people every week asking questions about their feet. All sorts of questions! When I ask how long it’s been like that- or when did it start, people are often patchy with this information as they don’t remember. I ask when did you check your feet- a blank look is returned. Check your feet.
It’s so important to have a really good look at your feet check the soles- with a magnifying glass if you have to or a mirror. Its amazing what you might notice, yesterday I spotted a price tag on the sole of a patients foot- she was unaware and we had a chuckle about it.
But if you suffer from diabetes or have other conditions that may affect the sensation to your feet you could stand on a pin or stone or even a coin and not feel it burrowing its way into through the skin. During my time in the NHS I frequently came across things in people feet that they were unaware of due to neuropathy – one very memorable incident was when a 2 inch nail was sticking right through a boot and into the toe of a patient- Ouch is what I was thinking but as they couldn’t feel it they were not aware of it. So, moral of the story is have a look at your feet- a proper look and inspect them, is there anything there today that wasn’t there yesterday? while you are there inspect your footwear- has the treads worn thin? has the heel worn through? has the stitching of the upper split? Go get them repaired or bin them.
Last week I had a gentleman with a very painful lump appear under his big toe – he thought it was a corn, and to the untrained eye it looked like a small corn. It was such an unusual location for a corn that I was immediately suspicious. I asked him if he had a dog…..he was very puzzled by this question and wondered why I asked (I could see a few dog hairs on his feet). My mind was thinking has a dog hair pierced the skin and is under the lesion? While I got a nice story about the dog I was debriding the lesion to reveal under the hard skin was a small channel where a wiry black dog hair was forming an inflammatory reaction to the surrounding soft tissue. All was well after removing the dog hair and a dressing was applied. So the importance of checking feet is paramount. #loveyourfeet