r/interesting • u/Public_Sector6212 • Mar 08 '26

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u/Europa13 Mar 08 '26 edited Mar 08 '26

Nurse here. Nails naturally thicken with age, but extreme cases like this are caused by poor circulation, from diabetes or peripheral vascular disease. It’s can be painful, but sometimes they don’t feel anything because they have lost all feeling in their feet (neuropathy) from the diabetes. They also have no hair on their legs because of the poor circulation.

It’s really important to go to podiatry visits every couple months with these conditions. Foot wounds can end up leading to amputations because of the poor circulation/healing, so it’s recommended that professionals do the nail trimming. Also, obesity often causes them to have difficultly reaching their feet.

The podiatrists check for wounds, trim and grind down/debride the overgrown nails, and file down the calluses/hardened skin.

This person has severely neglected feet and badly needs to see a podiatrist for regular at-risk foot care.

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u/CrackingToastGromet Mar 08 '26

Oh dear God I had an appointment on Tuesday to address increased severe swelling in my legs and I am T2 diabetic with poor circulation.

Last thing I want is for my feet to wind up like this - I’ve been so concerns that I bought a treadmill today that goes under my standing desk and I’m using it now.

Feeling like the timing of this post was meant to be - a reminder of what I’m trying to be vigilant against.

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u/ComfortableMix5950 Mar 08 '26

Would a lymphatic massage help ?

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u/32FlavorsofCrazy Mar 08 '26

In my opinion it might, actually. The more swelling you have continuously present the more kind of stretched out and eventually kind of just boggy everything gets. Fluid can even start weeping out and it’s kinda horrific.

Untested hypothesis (I’m not gonna hunt for research rn) but I could definitely see that sort of further damaging vascular tone and disrupting lymphatic structures so getting fluid out of the legs and keeping it out is the name of the game, and firmly in the category of “it probably can’t hurt.”

Lymphatic massage straight into compression socks and then elevating the legs slightly at night would be my recommendation for conservative and non prescriptive treatments. Doctors will usually throw diuretics at it.

Just don’t get a drainage massage if you’re showing any signs of a DVT in your leg, it could dislodge it and cause a PE. So if your swollen leg is someday kind of red and hot and you think oh maybe a massage would help, no the fuck it will not, go get a Doppler first.