Jim has diabetic feet.

He had diabetes for a long time before it was diagnosed which created a foundation for several serious complications as he’s aged.

Foot problems are a common occurrence with diabetes. In fact, it was problems with Jim’s feet that led to a diagnosis of the disease. These days, the circulation is so weak that it’s gradually killed off nerve endings, meaning that he has very little feeling from the knee down.

Knowing this, you can imagine my concern when he started complaining about intermittent foot pain last night.

I got him to take off his sock and I found one of those toe bandages (similar to the picture), folded in half cinched tight around his toe – a toe it shouldn’t be around. It cut off what little circulation he had left. After I removed the elastic garrote, it took almost three hours for the pain in his foot to dull. I kept watch and his toe while slightly swollen and redder than the others, returned to normal.

This morning I caught him asking Alexa for more toe bandages.

He doesn’t remember foot pain last night. He doesn’t even remember that I’ve been bandaging his other foot for the past 7 weeks (even though, after his shower he consistently remembers to come get me to bandage said foot.)

For a while last night it was mind-bending. He’s talk about his sore toe, and then he’d ask what I was talking about when I assured him it would feel better. He didn’t remember having a sore toe. And then he’d comment about his sore toe again.

We’re entering a new stage. I’m going to have to start finding a reason to hover while he’s getting dressed. Not so much for making sure he’s putting on appropriate clothes (he’s still doing okay with that), but to ensure he’s not adding things to his wardrobe that can be harmful, like inappropriate use of the toe bandages.