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Daily foot check, what's your approach?

Totto

Totto

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,831
Location
Gotland
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
Had a brief discussion on a thread about the soles of your feet and how to actually look at them. Apparently there are diabetics who find it difficult to see their feet so how do you go about the daily foot checking business? DO you check feet on a regular basis?

I check my feet almost every day, either sitting on a chair or in bed by putting one foot on the opposite thigh and looking at the sole and sort of massage from heel to toes. Very nice.

I also do a foot check in the shower, always did on a regular basis but this is sort of natural, isn't it? A bit trickier if you are a bit stiff limbed, granted, but we all want clean feet, don't we?

So how do you go about feet checks?
 
I'm fine, but as I commented earlier, MrB is not so bendy, but he can still see all of his feet, provided he's left to his own devices.

He washes his feet by bending his knee, towards his chest, thereby lifting his foot up in the shower. In the bath, he bends over and similarly bends his knee. He cuts his toenails, sitting down, bending over, with his feet on the floor and podietary nippers. When he wants to look at the somes of his feet, he adopts the same position as to cut his toenails, but lays a mirror on the floor. He then just lifts his foot above it and can see every centimetre.

It's just adapting to our limitations or looking for a different way of doing things. There are no dramas about this on Planet Breathe.

Just to add, he plays golf most days of the week, to a handicap under 5, and can comfortably handle our boat single-handed, so he's not unfit.
 
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I don't have a planet, or even a small moon, and to be honest, I don't worry about my feet.
They get washed when the shower runs down, they don't get dried, they sort of hang around the end, and stop my legs fraying.

They get an annual check, which consists of a bit of poking, pulse checking, and told they're fine.
Which they are.
(I listen in)

But I do need to wear the reading glasses to cut my toenails, which I find I need to do occasionally, and which I find a completely insufferable waste of my time.
As to podiatry nippers, small foot specialists avoid me, so I use toe nail clippers.

I can manage a pedalo if that helps, but, to be fair, I hate water.
But it does make my toe nails softer.
As to golf, why hit something you need to chase, simply to hit again?
Hit it hard enough the first time, and you won't need to hit it again.
 
Sit on my bed, knee up and check with foot facing full length mirror whilst putting cream on in the morning
 
I can't get my toes close enough to need reading glasses when cutting toe nails. Or maybe I'm just myopic.

Don't complain about toe nail cutting as a waste of time. As long as your toe nails grow there is hope.
 
I check mine every week, especially when lounging in the bath( I hasten to add I do bathe/shower more than once a week lol) I prod the toes , underneath and on top and sometimes I look at them in a long mirror. DSN recently checked them with a tuning device to see if I can feel the vibration.
 
If you have a smartphone or tablet you can take a video of your feet ie you can hold the thing in a position where it can see the bits of your feet that you can't and if necessary, you could use a telescopic selfie stick.
 
Make friends with a reflexologist. My best chum is one, and will happily inspect, and massage my feet with aromatic potions. Would even cut my nails if needed.
Very relaxing, seemingly for her, as well as me. I couldn't bear to touch anyone else's feet, but do manage to check and clean my own feet daily in shower or bath.
 
Cant say I really check my feet regularly but I do rub off the dry skin a two or three times a year with one of those sticks with like sandpaper on it and apply a cream, usually Vasaline moisture locking body lotion or whatever the wifes got laying about.

And of course I have the touch test on the soles of my feet and toes done at my annual diabetic check once a year, and thats it.
 
It is not very elegant.

Toenails are clipped standing on one leg.
Other foot on toilet seat.
So clippings fall straight down loo.
And the clippers once went the same way. That was fun.

Always put foot cream on at night, sitting on edge of bed.
Bring foot up to rest on other thigh.
Rub in cream, inspect sole.
The trick is to do the second foot without smearing cream all over carpet.
Followed by even trickier manoevre to get both feet into bed without wiping cream off onto sheets and side of bed.
Good for abdominals.

Mr B used to smirk, until I may have accidently hit him a few times in my flailing.
Now he stays, circumspectly on other side of bed, watching the fun over the top of his reading glasses.
 
I used to have terrible problems with hard and cracked heels and was told it was because I used sandals all summer or generally the wrong kind of shoes. After going on thyroid meds my feet are unbeleivably soft and no problems with cracks and no need to use sandpaper or anything to make them soft.

I do however check them every time I shower by standing on one leg and bending the other towards my face close enough so I can see it, being near-sighted. And I massage my feet every night in bed, makes me feel at ease. This is something I started recently since I was widowed and it's very nice. It doesn't make me feel less alone or less abandoned but feels nice.
 
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