Circling Charcot

My resurgence of Charcot "Sharko" Foot makes it a good time to go over the condition, especially as one of the biggest threats of the condition is that it is rare enough that doctors can easily make it worse. To the cost of the patient’s limb.
Charcot Foot these days is almost an exclusive diabetic condition characterized by sudden and often "inexplicable" swelling of the foot. The foot will often "run a fever" and can be seven degrees Celsius warmer than the non-afflicted foot. The condition is most often painless to the patient.
Usually, the Charcot Foot is triggered by a break or fracture among the bones of the foot. With reduced circulation and/or nerve damage, the diabetic does not feel the break and continues to use the foot as normal. The swelling is the body’s way of protecting itself.
The unintentional risk posed by doctors is that the attending physician will not recognize or know of the condition. Often, the doctor will probe the swelling to test for bacterial or viral infection within the foot. In doing so, the doctor may introduce surface skin bacteria inside the foot and cause a sever infection that can jeopardize the limb. The patient should neither allow biopsy nor any type of mechanical reduction of the swelling. About half the patients who allow those thing quickly lose the foot.
Treatment for the Charcot relies on treatment for the underlying cause. X-rays and MRI’s are often necessary to determine the damage location and extent. Staying off the afflicted foot as much as possible will be necessary. The bones must heal properly. If they do not, they can separate further, mal-forming the foot permanently and risk ulceration of the foot. To be bluntly graphic, ulceration of the foot is when the bones poke through the skin from the inside out. The risk of infection during an ulceration is high, and the diabetic patient may not be able to feel it happening.
As usual with me, everything was slightly unusual. I developed Charcot Foot not because of a broken bone, but by tendon damage in my toe self inflicted by a hard kick. I had an inept foot doctor who prematurely declared the Charcot had passed Phase One and did not take into consideration that I was on eye-dropped prednisone for an eye surgery. The Charcot Foot renewed with a vengeance, and the swelling further reduced circulation. With further impeded circulation, nutrients including high levels of calcium and deficient Vitamin D could not reach the center of the ankle. The central bones collapsed, permanent damage that put me in a Crow Boot.
Overuse re-triggered the Charcot Foot recently by re-inflaming the tendon. When the foot swelled, the Crow Boot no longer fit correctly and the ankle bones that are twisted and misshapen ulcerated through the side of the ankle.
The tendon will ever be likely to re-inflame while a broken bone would likely have mended. The crushed ankle cannot mend. I have to be diligent, and my situation of not being able to feel much pain in the ankle combined with an inability to see things wrong with the foot makes that even more of an effort.