I admit, I not only go barefoot, wear brikenstocks and all that, I also trim my own toenails. I am truly a rebel.
I wear shoes inside and out. I have a pair of Ugg slip on boots that are lightweight and have a sturdy sole that I wear for slippers at night but my running shoes go on my feet first thing in the morning. I do it for diabetic reasons but also for foot structure. Walking barefoot is a painful experience after about 4 steps. I do wear dansk sandals in the summer along with running shoes. My dad visited a doc once with a blister from a new shoe…He was taken by ambulance to the hospital, lost part of his foot and was started on insulin. He didn’t have a clue he was diabetic.
I used to run around barefoot all the time until I had my first ulcer. At that time, I was in good control but I did have some mild neuropathy. I was getting ready for work one Friday morning and had looked at my feet for the first time all week – another bad! There was a huge hole in the bottom of my foot. I had been to a clients the day before that had a gravel parking lot & my first thought was a stone came thru my shoe. When I started looking at the shoes I had worn that week, I realized the hole had been there all week. I had been outside twice without shoes that weekend chasing my dog so it is possible that I stepped on something then. My dog also would chew on cow hooves and would leave them next to my bed. That is something I could have stepped on and realized it but kept going without thinking about it. That ulcer took 6 months to heal.
In 2005, I got an ulcer from dry-cracked skin. I did what I was supposed to do & called the doctor on day one. About 3 months after that started, I moved and had to find a new doctor - that is when things really went downhill. My foot got infected and although I had a strange discharge & pain in my foot, the new doctor shrugged it off. I landed in the ER really sick – when I went in, I did not even think it was my foot. The ER doctor asked me what I had going on besides diabetes and I didn’t even mention my foot – I looked down & saw my blue surgical shoe after he walked out of the room.
I was admitted to the hospital and found out that I had osteomyelitis, which is an infection to the bone. What followed after that, I guess you could say was a comedy of errors (although not exactly funny). I ended up getting MRSA in the hospital. After I was released from the hospital, the home nurse & my sister encouraged me to go to the local wound center. That was when I found out I had MRSA. My foot was not healing but after 3 rounds of Vancomycin, the doctor told me the infection was gone & started me on a wound vac. I later found out that both the culture and MRI I had before starting wound vac said that I had an infection. He should not have put the wound vac on with an infection and because he did, my bone turned to mush.
As things continued to get worse, I switched to a doctor in Pittsburgh. At that point, I had been dealing with my foot for a year. I had major surgery to remove the bone in my foot. Two weeks later, I had surgery to remove the antibiotic beads and then two months later, he did a bone graft. I also did 60 HBO treatments. It took a full year from when I met that doctor for my foot to entirely close – literally 2 years from the day everything started to finish.
When that mess started, I was on Lantus and my BS was bouncing all over the place. My neuropathy was also getting worse. The circulation in my feet is still very good even with the neuropathy and I have had several doctors tell me that things would be a lot worse if my circulation was bad.
One of the guys I did HBO with did not have neuropathy. I did not ask him his A1cs but he seemed like he had decent control – it was obvious some of the other people there did not. That guy broke his foot playing golf and the bone came thru the skin. When I met him, he had been dealing with his wound for 3 years. I have since heard that it eventually did heal but his leg is a mess because of it.
This summer after I started my pump, I passed out & woke up to EMTs over me. I don’t know what happened, but after I got home from the hospital, I found a huge blister on the side of my foot. I now see a doctor that specializes in wounds so I went to see him right away. That closed pretty fast and he told me that was the first time he ever saw a diabetic foot do what it was supposed to do.
Because I have the bone graft in my foot, walking barefoot is not an option any more. I literally put my shoes on as soon as I get up and don’t take them off until I go to bed. I use a shower chair because my balance is bad so I get in the shower then take my shoe off. I put it back on before stepping out of the shower.
If you want to see what happened to my foot, here are the pics – don’t look if you have a weak stomach.
http://kellywpa.wordpress.com/diabetic-foot-wound-picture/
Most people think you should put a helmet on before getting on a motorcycle. Think of shoes in the same light.
I am so glad your foot healed up FINALLY after all that agony and all that time!! 
When I was in the hospital with my coma, I developed the beginnings of a pressure sore on the side of my heel (hot. painful blister surrounded by red, hot skin), but I was able to keep weight off it, and it did heal, but it took several weeks.
I have good circulation, and no neuropathy, but I still could have had problems. So I just don’t take any chances with my feet.
Oh, you naughty, naughty diabetic…
That is a really sobering story. While I certainly partake in risky behavior, walking around barefoot and cutting my own nails,I also look at my feet quite often. These days, I actually look at them every day as I apply tea tree oil to a mild case of fungus. What really scares me about your story is that you actually seem to have had exemplary blood sugar control and still this happened too you. I used to naively associate diabetic foot wounds as being a risk because of high blood sugars, but now I’ve started to understand that impaired circulation is a big factor and there may be other things. Yet another reason to also do our best to stay active.
Oh, gosh. Thanks for sharing your story. I used to wear flip-flops or walking sandals with socks (Tevas) and this is why I stopped making that fashion statement – I haven’t had cracked, dry heels since I switched to wearing closed walking shoes with “diabetic” socks. There was something about open shoes that was just too, too drying for my feet, no matter how often I put on lotion.
Yow. I am so glad you have finally healed! What a nightmare. (((((((Kelly WPA))))))))
Happy Birthday Natalie!
I am not a big fan of shoes – at home I am usually in my socks. In warm weather I wear slip on sandals. I check my feet daily and that’s about it. If I get a blister or a dry skin crack it freaks me out a little so I pay closer attention at those times.
Thanks Natalie! Keeping weight off a wound does help it to heal faster, as you found out. I am glad that yours did not cause any problems for you since you had enough other stuff going on. I know you had to fight to get insulin.
Thanks BSC. When the first ulcer happened, my A1cs were in the 6s. When the major one happened, I was in the upper 6s, lows 7s but my BS was also bouncing all over the place, which is not good. That was when I was first put on Lantus and no one said to split it (and I had not found the DOC yet) and was starting to have problems with gastroparesis and did not know how to deal with that yet. When the one happened last summer, my A1cs had been really good for a couple years so I am sure that helped heal it faster.
I do think checking every day is really important so I am glad that you do that.
Thanks Jean! I never would have thought I would have ever ended up where I did just from dry skin – now I am super careful about that.
You know, I have a theory about my former hideous cracked heels – I think it might have been partly a contact dermatitis from the neoprene or rubber against my skin.
I now have leather orthotics in my walking shoes and wear socks with them, so I never have the neoprene (or whatever porous plastic the sole is made from) of the walking shoe against my skin.
I did notice during my transition to wearing closed-toed shoes that even one day in flip-flops would result in a big increase in dry/cracked skin on the soles of my feet. Now that my diabetes has progressed – and I’ve read your tale of woe (!!!) – I’ll probably never risk putting porous plastic and/or neoprene-soled sandals against my skin. If I react to the neoprene, it’s just not worth the risk!
I’ve been T1 since '74 and have had many complications that I have been able to reverse. My A1cs are decent (6s) and I walk 45 min or cycle (10 mile) several times a week. I have good circulation and sensation in my feet.
I wear solid soled slippers all the time around the house. They are the first thing I slip into in the morning. They are a habit that I’m glad I developed.
Why? A few reasons:
First: It is the one action I can take that will always get positive results. (I wish I could say the same for my odds of hitting a decent bg after weighing food, counting carbs, bolusing and even waiting a few minutes before eating!!!)
Second: I took care of a dear friend (also type1 for many years) in the hospital when she had a toe amputated. She has had pure hell!!
Third: I got an e-mail the other day from another friend (type1) who was advertising a garage sale she was having to raise money for an artificial leg after hers was amputated.
I don’t really care for slippers. BUT slippers have got to be cheaper than an artificial leg and they have to be far more comfortable than an amputation.
Bottom line…none of my justifications for going barefoot could trump the benefit of wearing slippers. (BTW…mine are Dearfoams…not hip, but they work)
PS…I will wear sandals a few times in the summer.)
OK, that PSA video was seriously scary and I am officially scared. Anyways, on the topic of being barefoot… my feet are very easy to make feel very hot and uncomfortable. Before I was diagnosed, I couldn’t wear socks that weren’t the extra “breathe-able” ankle sock kinds. If I couldn’t feel cool air swishing around my feet underneath my socks while swinging my leg back and forth randomly in public (haahaha), I couldn’t keep them on for longer than 15 minutes. And like some of you who replied previously, I can’t keep my feet underneath layers of sheets and comforters while sleeping, I have to kind of dangle them off the bed and keep the covers off or I wake up drenched in sweat from head to toe. My feet are naturally prone to being very hot.
But, hmmm, in retrospect, whenever my feet get really cold, they are REALLY really cold and it’s always been painful to move my toes. Am I strange?
I rarely go barefoot and except for the time I am in bed, I wear slippers or shoes. I wear tennis shoes or slippers with hard soles and soft sides. Once, when I was young, a doctor chewed me out for stepping on a straight pin in the middle of the night in my bedroom. I thought the requirement to never go without shoes was bit over the top in that case. The wearing of shoes is not because I am diabetic–my doctor is fine with my going barefoot since I have no loss feeling in my feet. It’s for orthopedic reasons. Two or three days without shoes and back pain sets in and my feet hurt all the time. So I don’t go barefoot.
i haven’t broke the habit of going barefoot outside yet :(…i will compromise and wear flip flops when i remember, but i’m still trying to break myself.
my feet are the first to get cold always then my hands
5 pages of replies and I don’t see a single ‘Vibrams’ answer?
Vibrams vibrams vibrams!!!
This guy loves them so much, he’s got a very active blog all about them.
http://birthdayshoes.com/
I’ve been wearing vibrams and nothing else (on my feet) for over a year. My feet, knees, and hips have never felt better.
Barefoot with a little protection, yeah baby!
I should also note that the “stiff soles” is so outdated. The latest-greatest “health” opinion is less is more - our shoes have been damaging our feet and not allowing the muscles in our feet to do their job. I do know the firs few weeks I wore these, my feet felt like I was doing hard gym workouts with them. Most people with fallen arches find their arches get better, as is the case with other foot ailments.
Other than the stepping on something argument, there is no reason to wear shoes. I did cut off the tip of my foot once years ago. That was bad news, and the vibrams would have prevented it.
I was DX at 8yrs old and around the house I’ve never worn shoes. But like most people I check often to make sure there’s no injury and if there is, i take care of it quickly. I do, however, make sure I have a good pair of walking shoes if we’re going on vacation and going to be doing a lot of walking. I also always tennis shoes if I’m going to be on an airplane just in case my feet get banged up in the airport and/or airplane (i’m kinda clumsy). But otherwise, if I’m at home I’m barefoot, unless my feet are cold then I’ll put on some socks.