How To Help Your Diabetic Feet And Legs Or Recover From A Leg Injury
You might have pins and needles, pain or numbness in your feet. Maybe you fell and bruised or broke you leg. And so maybe you can’t walk so well right now.
But, here’s the thing: Don’t stop moving.
You might not be able to walk or stand right now but can you still move your feet and legs?
If yes, that’s great! Here are some ideas to keep the blood flowing and the muscles moving. (Even a little movement is better than none at all.)
1. You can shake your feet from side to side, or roll your legs from side to side when you are in bed. Pretend your feet are windshield wipers on a car. Swipe one at a time from side to side. When you move your feet like that it also moves all the muscles in your whole leg and even in your hip!
They sell machines that help people move but hey! If you can do it yourself, you are using your muscles and that’s better still.
2. Draw circles with one foot at a time. That movement will come from your ankle. See if you can do 10. If not, try to work up to 10. First go in one direction then rest for 10 seconds. Then circle in the other direction.
3. Slide your heel toward your butt when you are laying on your back and then slide it back down to the foot of the bed. Make sure you are sliding on the bed.
4. If you can reach your legs and feet you can rub them. You can use any type of oil or lotion you have (except engine oil.) 🙂 Massage moves muscles and helps circulation.
There is a local foot doctor who advertises a machine that vibrates the feet of people with diabetes to help them. I haven’t seen it but my own experience massaging diabetic feet is that it helps with the circulation. And better circulation helps things heal.
Massaging around injuries helps the injury heal faster, too. Not ON the injury while it’s raw or open but around it.
So, don’t just sit. Wiggle, jiggle, move, rub, shake.
Sitting will do you in.
My friend Rosalie, had the Sitting Disease. She sat at work and at home. Finally, she couldn’t walk much anymore. She had to crawl up the stairs like a puppy. She also had lung disease and diabetic feet.
Guess what?!
When Rosalie finally started walking her feet got better and so did her lungs. Her lung doctor was amazed. He said, “Rosalie, nobody who comes to see me ever gets better.” She felt better and eventually she started walking fast (hiking) with Nordic poles!
So, don’t just sit. Shake, rattle and roll! 🙂 These simple movements can help your feet and legs feel better.
Hi Kathryn,
I first heard about you recently from Bette Dowdell’s website- What would you recommend for a leg whose bones don’t always line up under the knee? It’s sometimes very painful when walking and the bones that weren’t aligned snap back into position! My other leg (the right one) in fine- Is this a trick knee? I hope it’s fixable!
Thank you Kathryn for your reply!
Betsy
Hi Betsy, Thank you for writing about your knee pain. Bette is a very knowledgeable gal!
When the bones around the knee are not lining up properly, it could be from a position you use when seated. Or, it could be that the muscles on one part of your leg are stronger than another part. Or, maybe some old injury that tore a ligament or tendon?
I have seen (and heard) people ‘crack’ their knees and say, “that feels better.” Kind of like cracking knuckles.
My best thoughts would be to strengthen your legs. Strengthening the appropriate muscles can make a world of difference.
If you have access to a swimming pool, Pool Moves will give you some ideas of movements in the water that will strengthen your legs. If you do not have access to a pool, there are a lot of exercises/movements to strengthen your shin and thigh muscles. You can even do them in bed or seated. Note: It’s more likely that your calf muscles need to be lengthened.
My next thought is to work on figuring out whether you may be doing something to annoy your leg muscles. Are you sitting with that leg folded under you?
I might also wonder whether you have a short leg and that is throwing your leg muscles out of balance.
I hope these ideas can help, Betsy. Bodies heal all the time and that includes knees, too! I suspect that getting the muscles back in muscular balance and stronger will help you feel better even if there is an old injury to your knee structure.
Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach