Cost for the doctor to see you!

Recently Shopdme posted a great article breaking down how much your doctor actually makes when you go in.
The approximate breakdown of a $100 new-patient appointment:
$9 for malpractice insurance
$4 for equipment and maintenance
$8 for supplies
$6 for rent and utilities
$10 for office expenses such as telephones, accounting fees, advertising, medical journals, licenses, and taxes
$28 for staff salaries and benefits
$35 for the doctor
This does not include billing costs, legal fees if needed, the cost of implementing electronic health records or the cost of new equipment to keep up with the changes in medicine.
Most doctors graduate with large student loans.
I personally pay $2400 a month in student loans and have been for over 11 years.  This means that I must see 69 patients a month just to cover my student loans.  Then I can start earning money to cover food, housing, clothing, car costs, health insurance, and other expenses.  If this cost $3000/month, it would take another 90 patients a month to see.  That's 159 total.  Reimbursement is lower for established patients.  This doesn't include day care if the doctor has children or the cost of repairing equipment or their car.
The next time that you come in to your doctor.  Please don't say, well, you're a doctor you can afford it.  They have sacrificed many years of their lives and are usually in serious debt, to take care of people!

Your Leg Is a Mirror Of Your Body - ModernGhana.com

Your Leg Is a Mirror Of Your Body - ModernGhana.com

This a very good article to discuss the many complications that may occur with diabetes.

The best way to deal with a diagnosis of diabetes is this:

1. Educate yourself. The more you know, the better you can protect yourself.

2. Check your feet every day!

3. If you have any small wounds or sores, contact your doctor immediately!

4. Educated yourself. Yes I am repeating myself!! Things change regularly in treatments and how to manage your diabetes, if you keep up to date, you won't miss anything.

5. Make sure to wear shoes with a wide toe box and good cushioning. If you draw a picture of your foot on a white piece of paper and put your shoe on top of it.... if the drawing is wider then your shoe. You need a new shoe! It will be much cheaper to throw away a shoe that is too small and rubs your foot, then to deal with the cost of an ulcer and possible amputation.

There will be more on foot care coming up.

Children's Feet

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tSxcEB08hoA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Heel Pain Plantar Fasciitis Part 3

Heel Pain Plantar Fasciitis Part 3

Arizona cuts Podiatric Coverage to Medicaid Patients

http://diabeticfootonline.blogspot.com/2011/02/lack-of-podiatric-coverage-on-medicaid.html

Heel Pain Plantar Fasciitis Part 4

Heel Pain Plantar Fasciitis Part 4

How to prevent heel pain or plantar fasciitis:

1. Make sure that you have properly fitted shoes.  Many patients come into my office with shoes that are too big or too small.  If you need help, call shoe stores or your Podiatrist to get your feet measured.  Unfortunately for many people, their feet do not stay the same size throughout their lifetime.
2. Replace your shoes regularly.  Although shoes can get expensive, it is usually cheaper then visits to your doctor or time off from work due to foot pain. Check the bottom of your shoes; if you see that there is a lot of wear in the heels or soles of the shoes, it is time to get new shoes!
3. Make sure that you get shoes that are supportive and have cushioning!  A good way to check both of these is to bend the shoe from the heel to the toe, if you can fold the shoe in half, it doesn’t have the support that you need. If you can press down on the inside of the shoe at the heel and there is no cushioning then that is not the shoe for you unless you can remove the innersole and put your orthotics in for your cushioning. 
4. Prepare yourself before exercise; make sure that you stretch before and after exercise as well as getting warmed up. 
5. Although exercise is important, it is also very important to pace yourself.  Many people want to start out by running or walking 10 miles the first day.  If you have not been exercising start out with 5 minutes.  Always remember no matter how far you go, say 5 minutes from home; you still have 5 minutes to go back, unless you have just gone around the block that leads back to your home! 
6. Make sure that you are taking care of your total body when exercising, if you do not have proper nutrition and support for the rest of your body, you will not be able to sustain any activity properly.
7. Although no one wants to talk about this, if you are overweight, you need to lose weight.  Multiply your weight by gravity:  g = 9.8 m/s² and 32 ft/s^{2 and} that will be the force that is hitting your feet when you walk. 
8. Remember if you are overweight, you didn’t put it on in a day or a week or even a month, so you want to take it off at the same pace that you put it on! Small changes can make a huge impact, such as swapping out a soda or pop for a glass of water.  Only eating half of the bag of M & M’s, and leaving at least a small portion of food on your plate at every meal!

Next: we will discuss what your doctor can do for you if you have heel pain plantar fasciitis

Plantar Fasciitis Heel Pain Part 3

Heel Pain Plantar Fasciitis Part 3

Other Causes of Heel Pain:

Excessive Pronation:

Pronation is what allows the foot to absorb shock as it hits the ground in walking.  When you have too much of this flexible motion and flattening of the arch, it is called excessive pronation.

If you will notice, when you are walking, your heel will hit the ground first, then the foot rolls toward the big toe before it lifts up for your next step.  As the foot rolls toward the big toe, it becomes rigid and lifts the arch up.  If you have excess pronation, you get excessive inward motion which puts extra stress on all of the ligaments and tendons that attach to your heel bone.  This can also lead to extra stress and injury on your lower back, hips and knees. 

There are some other conditions that can lead to heel pain:

1.       Bone Bruise: this can occur as the result of trauma.

2.       Haglund’s Deformity or Pump Bump, this is an enlargement of bone where the Achilles tendon attaches to bone.  As your shoe presses on this area, you develop increased pain in this area. 

3.       Arthritis: Psoriatic Arthritis, Reiters Syndrome or Rheumatoid Arthritis can create pain in this area.

4.       Bursitis: This is similar to tennis elbow where a small sack of fluid fills up and creates pressure in this area. 

So, as you can see so far there are many different causes of heel pain.  Which will lead to the next portion of our discussion: treatment.  With so many different causes of heel pain, there are many different treatments for heel pain. 

Even though your neighbor, or cousin or friend had heel pain and received a certain type of treatment for their heel pain, your treatment plan may be very different.