Nerve Damage In Limbs

Fletcher, Jenna. “Diabetes Leg Pain: Treatments and Home Remedies.” Www.medicalnewstoday.com, 25 Feb. 2022, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/325157.

This article talks about how diabetic patients, especially with type 1 diabetes, can experience pain and/or numbness in their limbs. However, specifically with diabetic neuropathy, diabetic patients experience their pain in their legs and feet. Because of the serious nerve damage in the legs of the diabetic patient, it usually leads to doctors to have the leg, foot, or any other limb, to be amputated. The doctor can tell when a limb needs to be amputated when the patient feels absolutely nothing in the limbs, and the limb starts to have a discolored look to it. It also talks about the different types of remedies that a diabetic patient can use to help with the pain in the legs. For example, exercising, having a better diet, maintaining blood sugar levels, taking proper supplements, and maintaining the blood sugar levels. Since the pain in the legs is caused by nerve damage, it means that it is irreversible, that also means that it is better to prevent the pain from ever happening to trying to improve it after the nerve damage.  Doctors typically recommend amputating a diabetic patient's leg, foot, or any other limb due to the severe nerve loss in their legs , which might lead to an infection later on. 

A few things that I have learned from this article is that even if there is a slight change of the leg having nerve damage, then it must be kept under close observation because it could soon lead to infection. This means that not only the leg could be affected, but also other limbs and body parts if the leg still remains attached to the patient. I also have learned that the best diet for diabetic patients is to eat foods that are lean proteins (eggs), complex carbs (oats/ whole grains), non-starchy vegetables, some fats (nuts/fish), and some fruits. However the diet must be balanced to ensure good health for the patient and for regular/ stable blood sugars. 

This article will help me with my original work because in my original work there is a section of the model that represents a limb. For this part of the model, I want to show the discoloration of the limb that could occur due to higher blood sugars and acidic blood. This would also demonstrate that if left untreated for long periods of time, it could lead to infection in the limbs and amputation in the limbs. This could really show patients what their future would be like if they are not taking care of their health and blood sugars like they're supposed to. I will be using lights inside a box to illustrate the color changes of diabetic patients in their limbs if they do not maintain their blood sugars well. The lights will be on to symbolize a good limb, but once the light turns off, it will show a darker limb which would refer to the nerve damage in the leg. With this, patients can visually see how their limbs would look if they had ketoacidosis or hyperglycemia.