Thursday, January 9, 2014

FEELING HER FEET



My unfortunate but oddly cheerful sister-in-law has just had part of her right leg removed, a “below knee amputation” necessitated by complications from diabetes.  The amputation didn’t come as much of a surprise.  She’s never been healthy, and has long been enormously, dangerously overweight, hence the diabetes.  Inevitably she has never been much of a walker.
         
Along the way there have been a few moments of optimism, generally coinciding with periods of weight loss, times when she could, with difficulty, get around, but increasingly she’s had to use a wheelchair.  In recent days, even when she managed to get out of the chair, walking was scarcely possible since her feet were had no feeling in them, nerve damage being a prime symptom of diabetes.  It’s extremely hard to put one foot in front of another if you can’t feel where those feet are.
         
However, now that her foot and part of her leg have been amputated she’s got some feeling back. Yes, in the absence of parts of her actual limb, she has developed feelings in their phantom versions.  Just another of nature’s little black jokes.

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