Diabetes can be very complex and with it, come with a number of health threats such as foot ulcerations and poor blood circulation.

Meet Neville Turnbull. Neville is based in Horowhenua and has Type 2 Diabetes.

For the past 7 years, Neville has been a regular patient of Gita Pragji, a specialist Diabetes Podiatrist for THINK Hauora located in Horowhenua.

THINK Hauora offer a Diabetes Specialist Podiatry Service with expert podiatrists like Gita working hard to educate, prevent complications, and pick up early warning signs on a patients’ legs and feet as a direct result of a diabetes diagnosis.

This service can talk you through caring for your feet including these important points:

• Checking your feet regularly for signs of damage
• Washing and drying your feet thoroughly
• Keeping the skin between your toes clean and dry
• Applying moisturiser to help stop your toes and feet from drying out (but not between your toes)
• Having well-fitted shoes (not too loose or too tight) which ideally should cover your feet to avoid dryness

Neville has a long history with pressure point sores on his feet getting infected. When he first met Gita, these sores were a danger to him having the potential to lose his feet and compromise his leg and foot functionality. Due to poor circulation from his legs down, there would often be times where Neville wouldn’t realise that he’d injured himself.

Gita believes that developing a rapport with her patients is one of the best ways to pick up early warning signs and take the necessary steps to manage their conditions.

“Diabetes podiatry is a long and ongoing journey that requires education and multi-disciplinary care. By developing positive relationships with my patients, they have the ability to self-manage and are quick to report back when they notice something not quite right,” Gita says.

For Neville, this rings true. At the beginning of his journey, he was visiting Gita every month. Now he sees her every three to four months.

“Working with Gita keeps me on the straight and narrow and ensures I get the right antibiotics and dressings and means I can pick up on the early warning signs of pre-ulcer lesions as well as any other risk factors that could compromise my leg or foot health,” says Neville.

In conjunction with diabetes care and advice, Gita believes that any diabetes podiatry patient can manage their conditions preventatively.

“We really need to encourage our high risk populations such as Māori and Pasifika to have regular diabetes screening done.”

“It can often be a long journey of education and multi-disciplinary care, but if we do our job right, our patients can be good mentors for the friends and whānau and better yet, don’t end up in hospital and face losing a limb.”

To find out more about our Diabetes Podiatry Service, click here.