Every July, many parts of our country enter the time of flooding and rain. During this time, it often rains for three days, and sewage runs rampant, causing much inconvenience to those who go out. If such weather, for most healthy people, can bring inconvenience to their going out, then, for elderly diabetics, if they go out in such weather, it will bring that not only inconvenience, but probably disaster. As we all know, with the improvement of people’s living standards, more and more people have diabetes. But did you know that diabetes is scary and the complications of diabetes are even scarier! There are many complications of diabetes, except for the cardiovascular, kidney, eyes and other parts that are prone to disease. There is another part that is easily overlooked by everyone. This is our feet. Today I want to remind you of a disease that most like to patronize the feet of elderly diabetics, called diabetic foot. This disease is not as deadly as cardiovascular disease, but it is as painful as cardiovascular disease. This is not only because of the high incidence of this disease among diabetics, but also because it is very difficult to treat and can cause a lot of pain to patients. If older diabetics go out in the flooded rain and do not take care of their feet, they can easily develop this disease. So, what is diabetic foot? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetic foot is defined as an infection, ulcer formation and/or deep tissue destruction in the lower limbs of diabetic patients due to peripheral neuropathy and various degrees of peripheral vasculopathy caused by elevated blood glucose. Clinically, diabetic patients are affected by long-term hyperglycemia, which leads to sclerosis and narrowing of the microscopic blood vessels in the lower limbs, resulting in inadequate blood supply to the foot, manifested by dystrophy such as pain, coldness, thinning of the skin, thickening of the toenails, loss of sweat hair and even non-growth of the affected limbs. At the same time, lower limb ischemia and long-term hyperglycemic environment will also directly lead to edema and demyelination of the nerves in the foot and nerve damage, manifested as limb numbness and sensory impairment, such as sensory allergy and loss of pain sensation. At the same time, local tissue malnutrition and the accumulation of harmful metabolites can also cause lower limb histopathy, calluses, corns, dry skin cracks, etc. In this case, the foot resistance of diabetic patients will be very poor and especially prone to infection, especially when the patient has calluses, corns, dry and cracked skin, foot fungus, trauma and other such diseases that lead to the destruction of the skin integrity of the foot, the chance of infection will be greatly increased. Once a diabetic patient has an infection or necrosis in his foot, then he really has a diabetic foot. Diabetic foot is terrible, not only diabetic patients talk about diabetic foot, that is, in the clinic, many surgeons will feel scratching their heads when talking about diabetic foot. Why is this so? The answer is that the diabetic foot develops quickly, is difficult to treat, and has a poor prognosis, and the end result for many people is amputation. It is said that more than half of all amputations are due to diabetic foot. Why is this so? There are two main reasons for this. One is that, in diabetic patients, the sugar content in the local tissues is higher than normal, which is very suitable for bacterial growth, and at the same time, due to the long-term local high blood sugar environment, the local resistance is very weak, therefore, once infected, the bacteria multiply quickly, so the condition develops rapidly. Another reason is that the blood vessels in the feet of diabetic foot patients tend to be hardened and narrowed, so that it is difficult for the drugs to reach the lesion in the treatment, whether it is local or systemic drugs. I have seen several cases of diabetic foot patients in the clinic, the foot infection only two or three days, the patient does not know what disease, the foot rotted off. When he arrived at the hospital, we could only give him an amputation, which was a pity and terrible. In fact, more patients in the clinic are localized wounds repeatedly ulcerated and infected, and long-term treatment has not been sealed. This can make the patient suffer for a long time, and in some patients, the foot ulcers are painful and cause many other problems because they do not heal for a long time. Diabetic foot is terrible and not easy to treat, but diabetic foot, however, is easy to develop. Therefore, we should focus on prevention while treating diabetic foot. One of the effective measures to prevent diabetic foot is to go out less during flooding rain. As you know, the high temperature and humid climate during flooding rains are very suitable for the growth of bacteria. And because it rains a lot, the roads are full of sludge and sewage, so if we go out in such weather, our feet are accidentally contaminated. If you are a healthy person and there is nothing wrong with your feet, maybe you don’t have any problem. However, if you happen to be a diabetic and have broken skin on your feet, then, most likely, you are the next diabetic foot patient. If you are a diabetic, then, if you are going outside recently, you must be cautious. Try to minimize going outside on rainy days, and it’s a good idea to wear a pair of rubber shoes when you go outside. If you’re outside if you encounter sewage blocking your path, don’t dribble straight through it. Every time you get home, don’t be afraid of trouble, be sure to wash your feet clean, and then double check and inspect. If you get sewage on your feet when you go out and find a break in your feet when you get home, don’t take any chances, and be sure to disinfect and change the medicine in time. Diabetic foot is terrible, but active prevention can significantly reduce the incidence of the disease. Therefore, if elderly diabetic foot patients go out during flooding rain, they must be cautious.