Dwayne Wade – Heel Pain & Ankle Sprains

Miami Heat’s Dwayne Wade returned to action on Tuesday after missing 3 games and many practices over the last week.   He had been ‘taking it easy’ during that time in order to recover from heel pain.  The team had reported he was recovering from a ‘bruised foot’ that occurred against the Charlotte Bobcats. When the injury didn’t resolve after a week, Wade speculated that the injury may be his plantar fascia.  Whether he was fully recovered or not Wade seemed to have any problems in the game against the Golden State Warriors.  Unfortunately, the team hasn’t secured a win since his return and Wade’s injuries have mounted.  He strained his calf against the LA Clippers on Wednesday and sprained his ankle Friday against the Denver Nuggets.

Wade was concerned that he may have broken something as he’d ‘never sprained it like that before’.   With any ankle injury, it is important to rule out fractures with x-rays.   NBA players are liked to get to an x-ray quicker than you or I, but it is important to RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) any kind of ankle injury as excessive swelling can often make the problem worse.  Your body uses swelling to supply healing nutrients to the site and protect it.  The ankle joint often cannot easily accommodate large amounts of swelling and can complicate the injury.  For ankle injuries like this, an early treatment would be an injection to the ankle with a local anesthetic to relieve pain as well as a corticosteroid to help reduce swelling.   Doctor’s will most likely recommend early physical therapy as ankle sprains can become chronic if not treated aggressively.

While the ankle injury appears to have occurred on its own, we have to wonder if the heel pain played any part in problems over the last few games.  Heel pain can have many causes and all are not as straight forward as we have tried to point out before.  A thorough evaluation by a podiatric physician will identify the cause of your pain and the best course to correct it.  We hope Mr. Wade heals quickly and is able to get back on the court.

Foot pain – Increased Foot Problems in January

Is it the cold weather, ice, or winter sports that cause a spike in foot problems in the month of January?  While individuals may be less likely to visit the doctor earlier in the year because they have yet to meet their insurance deductable, more people probably experience foot problems in January than any other month.  It is less likely due to any of the previously mentioned rational, but rather three words……New Year’s Resolution!

The start of a new year gives many of use the opportunity to try new things and put our self in position to live a healthier lifestyle.  How many of us have resolved to make this year the year to be more active, loss those extra pounds, or better control your diabetes? We at Austin Foot and Ankle Specialists want everyone to stay healthy or improve their health through diet and exercise.  Unfortunately, too many of us don’t last through the aches and pain that can quickly develop in the foot.  Jumping right into a new vigorous exercise routine is an excellent way to develop foot pain.

This isn’t the first time we have talked about proper conditioning and easing into a new exercise routine, but it is well worth mentioning again.  As many of us could testify through personal experience, ‘an ounce of prevent, IS worth a pound of cure!’  The best way to prevent foot and ankle injury is to slowly work up to you goals.  In the case of walking or running, begin with smaller distances and add a little more with each subsequent routine allowing you ample rest between routines.  The same rational should go into wearing new footwear or orthotics.  By following the simple guide of working up to more strenuous exercise or distance, you can avoid becoming part of the large group of people who will develop foot pain in January.

Until next time, keep those feet happy and healthy, Austin!

Preventing foot injury – Holiday travel

With the final week leading up to the next two holiday weekends upon us, this may be our last chance to talk about staying safe during your travels.  The past few weeks we have discussed footwear and activities to avoid DVTs while you are journeying this holiday season. But, what are you to do if your footwear is no longer available, as has become custom at many airports? 

While we can hope that new practices put in place to keep us safe while traveling may let us keep our footwear on, it is a good idea to be prepared if indeed you are asked to remove them.  It is important to keep your feet protected from foreign bodies (splinters, sharps, etc.) and fungus.  Public places are ready for your feet to be assaulted by the molds and fungi that can cause ‘athletes feet’ and fungal toenails.  If you are wearing tennis shoes, as we suggested in earlier blogs, be sure to wear cotton socks.  Some are made with a thicker bottom and would be best suited for situations like this.  Make sure that they are comfortable in your shoes first, but wearing these types of socks will help to protect your feet if you do have to remove your shoes.  Because your socks can ‘pick-up’ dirt and grime from the floor, it’s also a good idea to pack an extra, clean pair of socks in your carry-on. You can then switch them before putting your shoes back on.

It is also a good idea to give yourself ample time to make your flight.  Attempting to rush through security checks can make you prone to injury.  Take the time to watch where you are stepping and avoid any of those foreign bodies.  If you do happen to step on anything, promptly make a visit to AFAS to have it examined and removed!  Travel safe this holiday.

Until next time, keep those feet happy and healthy this holiday Austin!

Traveler’s Thrombosis – Avoiding deep vein thrombosis for safe travelling

Hopefully you have made all your travel plans and are almost done preparing for the upcoming holidays.  While you may be focused on your destination or getting to spend time with family and friends, you should take a minute to think about staying healthy during your travels.  One significant event you can easily avoid is that of a deep vein thrombosis(DVT).

DVT’s occur when your blood forms a clot in your vein.  This results in pain, redness and swelling in the arm or leg that it occurred in.  It can become quite serious if this clot then becomes lodged in your lung or heart.  While this is most common in post surgical or hospitalized patients, there are a number of other factors that can put you at risk for this occurring.  Some of them, such as being overweight and smoking, are things your family doctor reminds you of at most visits. Other factors include advanced age, contraceptive use, travel…….wait? Travel?  The immobility and dehydration that are common to travelling lend to a DVT that has become known as traveler’s thrombosis.  Whether or not you have any of the risk factors we’ve mentioned, consider keeping yourself well hydrated as you travel.  Walking around terminals and hauling luggage can be quite a workout and you can easily become dehydrated if you do not drink plenty of liquids.  Staying hydrated is staying health whether you’re at risk for DVT or not.

If you do have some of the risk factors for DVT, consider other things you can do to keep them from occurring.  Since staying seated for long periods of time is another part of traveller’s thrombosis, try to move around during your travels.  If you are in a car, take occasional stops to walk around.  If a plane or train, stand up and walk around from time to time if possible.  You can also consider wearing compression stockings or flexing your leg muscles while you’re sitting.  These ‘little’ things you can do during your travels can help avoid DVT’s and the problems associated with them.

Until next time, keep those feet happy and healthy, Austin!

Diabetes awareness month – Wounds and complications

As diabetes awareness month comes to a close, let’s spend some time talking about wounds.  Earlier in the month we talked about the determination it takes to properly heal wounds complicated by diabetes.  Because of complicating factors, this is definitely an area where ‘an ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure’. 

By examining your feet daily for changes in color, texture, and temperature, you can detect problems early and seek appropriate intervention.  There is actually a lot of ongoing research within the podiatry field to assess or predict wounds before they occur.  This research attempts identifying ‘hot spots’ or areas under increased stress, so that your podiatrist can put you in specialized footwear or inserts to stop the problem before it occurs.   

Examining your feet daily is doubly important if you have any neuropathy of sensation loses.  When you lose the ability to feel pain, a small cut or splinter can go unnoticed and quickly lead to infection.  Infections that are undetected can easily invade the muscle and bones.  If the infection becomes septic, or reaches your blood, you may experience nausea, fever, chills or vomiting for which you must go immediately to the hospital.  The sooner you see a podiatrist or make a trip to an appropriate medical facility the quicker steps can be taken to limit the damage and put you on the path to recovery.  Delays in treatment, especially when infection is involved, can result in surgery and amputations.

We would encourage everyone who has diabetes or is close to someone who has it to join the American Diabetes Association.  The ADA offers plenty of resources and helpful advice.  One such recommendation is yearly foot check-ups with a podiatric physician.  Regular healthcare can help you avoid many of the complications we’ve mentioned.  We at AFAS are calling all to action by continuing to learn about and be aware of diabetes.

Stay tuned next month as we discuss holiday travels and some the things you should keep in mind.  Until next time, keep those feet happy and healthy, Austin!

American Diabetes Month – ‘Hidden’ exercise

There are so many topics to address when it comes to talking about diabetes.  Living with diabetes, provides daily challenges and many changes to the routines you have developed over the years.  Early diagnosis of type 2 diabetes is often first managed with changes to diet and exercise.  Hopefully the word ‘diet’ doesn’t elicit images of tasteless cardboard like food (we will dispel this idea in the future).  ‘Exercise’ shouldn’t conjure images of hours on the treadmill, repetitive weight lifting, or being covered in sweat.  Small changes to your daily activities can add some of the exercise you need to best manage your diabetes. Here are a few ideas from your friends at AFAS:

·         Raking leaves:  While you should take caution if you have any kind of lung or heart condition, raking the leaves in your yard can really get your blood flowing.  The action of raking includes muscles in your back, arms, chest, and legs.  By using these muscles, your body can better process the glucose in your blood and more efficiently use the insulin you produce.

·         Parking in the back:  You may have heard this one a few times before, but instead of parking right up front, opt for one of the many open spaces in the back.  This, of course, requires that you have a little extra time.  Instead of looping around the parking lot to find a space closer to the entrance of your work or shopping center of choice, grab one of the many empty spaces in the back of the lot and get a little extra walking in everyday.  Walking is one of the best and simple exercises you can do to boost your health.

·         Take the stairs:  If you work on the 20^th floor of the office building, hoofing it up the stairs in your business attire probably won’t do.  Now taking it to the 18^th floor and walking a couple flights of stairs will provide some added activity without sweat beading up on your forehead.

Remember that living a healthy lifestyle, no matter how long or severe your diabetes is, can only help you better manage your blood sugars.  This November be aware of your diabetes or help a friend or family member to be aware of theirs.  There is a wealth of information from the American Diabetes Association^®, family doctor, podiatrist, dietitian and other health care providers to help you best manage this challenging disease.

Until next time, watch your blood sugars and keep those feet happy and healthy Austin!

Diabetes awareness – NFL players

In honor of diabetes awareness, this month’s blogs will focus on different topics concerning the disease.  We have discussed some aspects of living with diabetes in past blogs.  It is a challenging disease to manage, but one that should not limit your aspirations.  With a growing incidence of diabetes in a growing population, not even athletes, a physically fit population, are immune to acquiring this problem.  There are actually a number of athletes who have reached the professional level while living with diabetes.  The NFL boasts three such athletes in Jay Leeuwenburg, Mike Echols, and Mike Sinclair.

 

Both Leeuwenburg and Echols have type one diabetes.  This type of diabetes is also known a juvenile diabetes as it is frequently discovered when you are young.  Before the advent of the portable glucometer, a blood glucose measuring device any diabetic is quite familiar with, the ability to manage this disease was quite difficult.  Medicine today offers many tools to monitor blood sugars and treatments to stop damage caused by changes in blood sugar from occurring.  While a different beast than adult onset, or type two diabetes, the diligence of management is of equal importance in juvenile diabetes.  The players we mentioned have to keep very close tabs on their blood sugars, using diet and insulin to keep the proper levels.

Players like Mike Sinclair, DE Philadelphia Eagles, face the same disease that affect tens of millions of Americans. Type two diabetes is often associated with obesity and poor diet and increases in prevalence with age.  When diagnosed early, changes to diet and exercise can often be enough to keep this disease a bay.  In the case of Mike, who is getting plenty of exercise, swapping the double bacon, half pound burger for a turkey sandwich helped him get his blood glucose in check.  Regular checkups with your primary doctor as well as your podiatrist can help you detect changes early.  By discovering glucose changes early, changes to diet can have a greater effect on managing this disease.  Lifelong medication may be needed to manage if your diabetes goes undetected for months or years.

Don’t let diabetes interfere with your life.  Educate yourself about your disease, visit your primary doctor, consult Dr. Thomajan and learn the things you can do you keep your diabetes in check.  Doing so early will help you continue doing the activities you like to do.

Until next time, keep those feet happy and healthy Austin!

Texas Rangers – A model for wound care

The Texas Rangers face the San Francisco Giants in Game 5 of the World Series tonight.  Trailing the series 3 games to 1, a win at Rangers Park is the only thing to keep hope alive.  This team has won some tough games throughout the season to arrive at this point.  They have had a rough time with the Giants for several of the first 4 games, but they’re not about to let that history play on their future.  Every member of that team is going out to win tonight and bring that trophy back to Texas. Doing so will make them only the 6^th team in history to make such a comeback.

We want to use all that excitement and determination to explore a facet of foot health.  Wound care, especially combined with diabetes, can be a difficult challenge.  For our younger audience, wound care more than likely consists of a bandage and maybe a little Neosporin.  This paradigm becomes a little more complicated when age and disease, like diabetes, are added in.   Wounds that occur in the diabetic foot can require a large dose of determination to go along with the proper care.  While there are many different doctors who will help to get you well, the care of a podiatrist is of utmost importance when dealing with problems in the feet.  Some of the components that go into healing foot ulcers may be overlooked by other physicians.  One such component may be what is causing the wound. Typically, footwear and foot structure can cause unfavorable pressure points which eventually lead to ulceration.  A podiatric physician will off-load these pressure points with a special boot or shoe. Doing so, allows the wound to heal by eliminating further insult.  Along with this assessment, a podiatrist may take a swab of the wound to assess for possible infection.  Flushing, debridement, gels, grafts, or other modalities may all be used individually or together to promote healing.  What methods are utilized is all dependent on the type of wound you have.  As the patient, you need the determination to follow your doctor’s instructions for the weeks or months it may take to get you better.  Just a reminder, but anyone living with diabetes should examine their feet every night and seek treatment at the first sign of a problem.  If you have diabetes and a foot wound that won’t heal, make an appointment at AFAS today!

Until next time, keep those feet happy and healthy, Austin! Go Rangers!