This sucks - Leslie West has leg amputation

[mayfly]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2011/06/guitarist-leslie-west-undergoes-amputation/1

Holy H Crap! 

 

[Jusatele]

wow, one of my first influences

 

[nexrex]

Scary stuff

 

[OzziePete]

It said in the article that he was diabetic, and the risk of having complications that may lead to leg amputation, is higher in diabetics than the average person.

Not to sure why, but you can bet if you see someone with an artificial leg or a leg amputated these days in the modern western world, it's probably a 50/50 chance they are diabetic.

Hope he recovers well, that sort of shock is pretty tough to get used to.

 

[bbl4ck]

It said in the article that he was diabetic, and the risk of having complications that may lead to leg amputation, is higher in diabetics than the average person.

Not to sure why, but you can bet if you see someone with an artificial leg or a leg amputated these days in the modern western world, it's probably a 50/50 chance they are diabetic.

The further away from the heart, the smaller the blood vessels are.  Most diabetics have consistently high levels of glucose in the blood which causes damage to small vessels.  Often the end result of this is neuropathy. 
A patient with neuropathy has greatly reduced feeling in the limb that develops this symptom.  Many times a diabetic patient will have a small wound on their foot, maybe just a small cut. 
Since they have reduced feeling in their limb, they don't realize they have the wound and it ends up getting infected.  Since the blood flow to these limbs is reduced due to the damaged vessels, the wound does not heal.
The infection moves up the leg and amputation is often required to avoid infection spreading to the rest of the body.  You were pretty close on your 50/50 evaluation.  Sixty percent of all amputations that are not related
to an accident are due to diabetic complications.  If you are a diabetic, pay close attention and take good care of your body so you can :rock-on:

 

[OzziePete]

It said in the article that he was diabetic, and the risk of having complications that may lead to leg amputation, is higher in diabetics than the average person.

Not to sure why, but you can bet if you see someone with an artificial leg or a leg amputated these days in the modern western world, it's probably a 50/50 chance they are diabetic.

The further away from the heart, the smaller the blood vessels are.  Most diabetics have consistently high levels of glucose in the blood which causes damage to small vessels.  Often the end result of this is neuropathy. 
A patient with neuropathy has greatly reduced feeling in the limb that develops this symptom.  Many times a diabetic patient will have a small wound on their foot, maybe just a small cut. 
Since they have reduced feeling in their limb, they don't realize they have the wound and it ends up getting infected.  Since the blood flow to these limbs is reduced due to the damaged vessels, the wound does not heal.
The infection moves up the leg and amputation is often required to avoid infection spreading to the rest of the body.  You were pretty close on your 50/50 evaluation.  Sixty percent of all amputations that are not related
to an accident are due to diabetic complications.  If you are a diabetic, pay close attention and take good care of your body so you can :rock-on:

Thanx for the info, I am not diabetic, but I know some people who are. One guy I knew when I was in my 20s, and he was about the same age, was terrified of losing a leg. He was diabetic (insulin dependent).

 

[Mor Paul]

I know Diabetes is no joke. I got to see my grandfather get his legs amputated one at a time, and eventually die from it

 

[OzziePete]

I know Diabetes is no joke. I got to see my grandfather get his legs amputated one at a time, and eventually die from it

Sorry to hear that Max......Not on your side of the family?

At work, we've had 3 guys fail their medicals in the last 2 years who have had to retire due to increasing diabetic conditions....It reaches a certain level and then you can no longer continue driving heavy vehicles due to medical risks.

 

[Mor Paul]

Grandfather by adoption. My mom was adopted. No idea what the medical history for her is.

 

[kboman]

Diabetes potentially gives eye sight issues as well with small retinal bleeding and leaks - if it's peripheral the practical effects are small, if it's in the fovea centralis your eye sight is severely affected. I'm not in a risk group (low general sugar intake, no heridity) but I really want to avoid diabetes. Systemic diseases like that affect everything (as seen in this thread) :-\

 

[Patrick from Davis]

I have had type 1 (Insulin dependent) diabetes for 34 years.  Much of what has been said is right on.  The high blood sugar causes osmotic stress on the body, causing water to migrate out of cells and into the blood.  The kidneys try to filter this, without much luck.  You normally are not supposed to lose fuel (glucose) in this manner.  The osmotic pressure causes damage to the capillaries, generally further from the heart happens first, and once they are gone, they stay gone.  This damage shows up in the hands, feet, and eyes.  The eyes show up because the damage makes vision difficult, obviously, not because it they are major circulatory requirement in the body.  This also explains the thirst problem with high blood sugar, your cells are being dehydrated by the osmotic pressure, the excess water in your blood is being excreted.  Then the body says I am thirsty, really really thirsty.  But no matter how much you drink, it doesn't help.  You generally start to slosh around.  Very annoying.  Long term, this causes reduced circulation overall, and then the cells get infected or necrotic, and at this point there is only really one solution left.

From a treatment standpoint, it is frustrating.  Shots, blood tests, and feeling crappy are all normal.  So is a laundry list of test Doctors perform on you.  Generally they all have to include blood draws, it wouldn't seem right otherwise.  Honestly, that part in not that bad, anything that helps keep me feeling better in the long term is worth 10 seconds (if that) of wincing.  From the personal perspective, it shapes a lot of what you do.  Habits are formed and followed because they bail you out.  Lots of habits.  Like training for soldiers in a lot of respects.  But, the real fun is being a detective and trying to figure out what went wrong and why your blood sugar went where it is not supposed to go.  Frequently, there is no answer, which is not easy to deal with.  Often you have to do this while you feel crappy, because let's face it, you don't feel well when your body is out of whack, but the high blood sugar still needs to be fixed.  The fixing it is not difficult, but the answering why it need to be fixed is.  And there seems to be no better time than when you feel crappy to dwell on it.  This is why my coworkers consider me to be kind of crabby.  Truth be told, I am wired that way anyhow.  Finally, there are no vacations.  In fact, actual travel sucks because of all the stuff required in order for things to run smoothly, and the difficulty of obtaining it if you forget it, it gets broken, or if it is lost.

Why the long winded spiel?  In a moment.  For me, I started very early.  This is my life, and it pretty much has always been this way.  For some that get it later on in life, or god forbid as a teenager, it is a lot to reckon with.  You know what life was like before, and now it is not.  You are categorically different from the average person.  At times you get frustrated.  After getting frustrated a lot, and losing your better sense about things (I wanted to joke that you buy a Wenge Les Paul neck with a Brazilian finger board, but alas) some people say, "F it."  This leads to a lot of the long term problems that are associated with diabetes.  Little details that are important to maintain watch on get dropped.  Frustration leads to annoyance which leads to stupid decisions.  You can make me take pills, shots, and tests, but you are not taking my cupcake.  One cupcake doesn't break the camels back, but the thought process that leads to it does.  It tends to all add up.
Patrick

PS, I didn't go into the fun and exciting world of low blood sugar.  That is the other side of the, "Awe geez," coin with diabetes.  But essentially you brain is starving for food so the less important things get get dropped.  Like completing sentences.

 

[bagman67]

I have had type 1 (Insulin dependent) diabetes for 34 years.  Much of what has been said is right on.  The high blood sugar causes osmotic stress on the body, causing water to migrate out of cells and into the blood.  The kidneys try to filter this, without much luck.  You normally are not supposed to lose fuel (glucose) in this manner.  The osmotic pressure causes damage to the capillaries, generally further from the heart happens first, and once they are gone, they stay gone.  This damage shows up in the hands, feet, and eyes.  The eyes show up because the damage makes vision difficult, obviously, not because it they are major circulatory requirement in the body.  This also explains the thirst problem with high blood sugar, your cells are being dehydrated by the osmotic pressure, the excess water in your blood is being excreted.  Then the body says I am thirsty, really really thirsty.  But no matter how much you drink, it doesn't help.  You generally start to slosh around.  Very annoying.  Long term, this causes reduced circulation overall, and then the cells get infected or necrotic, and at this point there is only really one solution left.

From a treatment standpoint, it is frustrating.  Shots, blood tests, and feeling crappy are all normal.  So is a laundry list of test Doctors perform on you.  Generally they all have to include blood draws, it wouldn't seem right otherwise.  Honestly, that part in not that bad, anything that helps keep me feeling better in the long term is worth 10 seconds (if that) of wincing.  From the personal perspective, it shapes a lot of what you do.  Habits are formed and followed because they bail you out.  Lots of habits.  Like training for soldiers in a lot of respects.  But, the real fun is being a detective and trying to figure out what went wrong and why.  Frequently, there is no answer, which is not easy to deal with.  Often you have to do this while you feel crappy.  This is why my coworkers consider me to be kind of crabby.  Truth be told, I am wired that way anyhow.  And of course, there are no vacations.  In fact, actual travel sucks because of all the stuff required in order for things to run smoothly, and the difficulty of obtaining it if you forget it, it gets broken, or if it is lost.

Why the long winded spiel?  In a moment.  For me I started very early.  This is my life and it pretty much has always been this way.  For some that get it later on in life, or god forbid as a teenager, it is a lot to reckon with.  You know what it was like before, and now it is not.  You are categorically different from the average person.  At times you get frustrated.  After getting frustrated a lot, and losing your better sense about things (I wanted to joke that you buy a Wenge Les Paul neck with a Brazilian finger board, but alas) some people say, "F it."  This leads to a lot of the long term problems that are associated with diabetes.  You can make me take pills, shots, and tests, but you are not taking my cupcake.  It tends to all add up.
Patrick

PS, I didn't go into the fun and exciting world of low blood sugar.  That is the other side of the, "Awe geez," coin with diabetes.  But essentially you brain is starving for food so the less important things get get dropped.  Like completing sentences.

Thanks for the detailed explanation of how diabetes works.  This is very informative, and I am now better able to appreciate the difficulties faced by diabetics and their families.

 

[Graffiti62]

I had to watch my grandmother and my uncle deal with diabetes, as well as toe and leg amputations. They both wound up dying from heart attacks. My uncle's cas was that he simple had had three attacks total, with the third one doing him in. He did a fair amount of damage to himself when he refused to go to the hospital during the second one, when he refused to go to the hospital until after the second round of the NFL draft, because he wanted to see who the Packers were taking in. Let me also say that, yes, this was in Green Bay, and, yes, football is taken that seriously there. My grandma had nerve damage due to her diabetes, and didn't feel the symptoms until she was really in the danger zone. To make matters worse, the ambulance crew took her to the wrong hospital, and had to turn around and take her all the way across the county to the hospital that had her doctor.

Leslie will come out fine, due to the fact that he didn't leave the limb to fester and then finally go once it was too late. That's what happened to Waylon Jennings. He was so reluctant to have his foot removed that he waited til he couldn't take it anymore. At that point, they finally removed it, but the infection became bloodborne and began spreading throughout the rest of his system, and he was gone months after.

However, with prevelance comes progress. False limbs are far more advanced than they were even ten or fifteen years ago. My uncle had plastic legs that he hated with a passion due to how useless they were. Now, they are making legs that you can put serious weight on and actually remain active enough to live a full life. Also, the medical community is making progress enough in keeping things in as much of a check as they can. BB King is a perfect example of this. He's had to deal with diabetes going on now 20 or 25 years, and he's still playing and doing his thing.

I myself know that I have to watch myself, due to how much it runs in my family. As soon as my wife starts bringing in paychecks with her new job, I am going to take the bite and actually join Weight Watchers to bring my weight down and keep it in check. I don't have health problems due to my weight now (my cholesterol is actually on the low end of the scale), but I know that if I keep going down the path I started to go down in college, It'll catch up to me. I also am the best man for my little brother's wedding in September, and I want to try to trim as much as I can before I go down. With the new options they have with their program that are geared strictly for men, I think I may actually have luck with it.

 

[Patrick from Davis]

Due to the circulation concerns, I have an exercise bike.  I hate the thing, well not really, but we are not friends.  Still, a fan and the Tivo, and I ride it 30 minutes, five times a week.  I watch whatever shows I don't remember to watch, which is most of them.  And before you know it the 30 minutes are up.  It takes me about 3-6 months, but once the metabolism is up, the weight comes off without much else.  There are several other benefits, but I uset it mainly to shed some pounds.  Fine, I know I said I got it for circulatory reasons, but lets be honest, it is a lot easier to keep doing and more fun when you look good as well.  And now that the habit is in place, it feels odd not to be there every night.
Patrick

 

[Cagey]

On the lighter side concerning Leslie West...

One of the first arena-sized concerts I went to back in the early '70s was Black Sabbath, with Leslie West and Mountain as the warm-up act. We get there, get our seats, smoke about a pound of dope, and the first band takes the stage. Talk about suck! I don't even remember who they were, but it was probably Bob Seger or somebody like that. Ultra-bad, whoever it was. I was tremendously disappointed because I thought that was Leslie West and expected much better. But, we lived through it.

Next band comes on, which should be Black Sabbath. Absolutely blew me away. Excellent show. Couldn't believe Black Sabbath could sound so good, as most of what I'd heard from them at that point was their "Master of Reality" album. Kinda surprised they didn't do any of those tunes, but whaddaya gonna do?

Then a third band comes on! Finally figured out what was going on, as they played mostly Black Sabbath tunes <grin>

Incidentally, Sabbath sucked, too. Leslie West was the star of the evening.

 

[Graffiti62]

On the lighter side concerning Leslie West...

One of the first arena-sized concerts I went to back in the early '70s was Black Sabbath, with Leslie West and Mountain as the warm-up act. We get there, get our seats, smoke about a pound of dope, and the first band takes the stage. Talk about suck! I don't even remember who they were, but it was probably Bob Seger or somebody like that. Ultra-bad, whoever it was. I was tremendously disappointed because I thought that was Leslie West and expected much better. But, we lived through it.

Next band comes on, which should be Black Sabbath. Absolutely blew me away. Excellent show. Couldn't believe Black Sabbath could sound so good, as most of what I'd heard from them at that point was their "Master of Reality" album. Kinda surprised they didn't do any of those tunes, but whaddaya gonna do?

Then a third band comes on! Finally figured out what was going on, as they played mostly Black Sabbath tunes <grin>

Incidentally, Sabbath sucked, too. Leslie West was the star of the evening.

Ha ha ha!  What venue were you at?  In Detroit, the only places I could think of that would have been big enough would have been old Tigers Stadium or the old Olympia Barn, where the Wings played.

 

[Cagey]

It was at Cobo Hall, which has some pretty substantial space available. Depending how they open it up, it'll seat between 25K and 100K people. Seems like most acts go to Joe Louis Arena these days, but I don't pay that much attention. There's also Comerica Park and a few other places, but I don't know that too many bands do the huge act thing like they used to. At least, not in Detroit. It's kinda like going into space, where you have to bring everything you need with you because there's no place to get it otherwise and you don't dare stop even if there were. Plus, I think space flight would be safer. Hell, Bagdad's safer.

 

[Graffiti62]

It was at Cobo Hall, which has some pretty substantial space available. Depending how they open it up, it'll seat between 25K and 100K people. Seems like most acts go to Joe Louis Arena these days, but I don't pay that much attention. There's also Comerica Park and a few other places, but I don't know that too many bands do the huge act thing like they used to. At least, not in Detroit. It's kinda like going into space, where you have to bring everything you need with you because there's no place to get it otherwise and you don't dare stop even if there were. Plus, I think space flight would be safer. Hell, Bagdad's safer.

I forgot that Cobo has been around that long. However, I don't know how much longer it will be around, as well as the Joe. It seems that the Red Wings have been playing it by ear on a year-to-year basis for at least the past three or four years. I know the Palace does have ice making capabilities and was home to the Vipers til their league folded, which makes it a viable and looked at option as an intermediate home while something new comes along. It just seems to me that considering how consistent the Wings have been in getting into the playoffs every year and how they have really been one of the bigger sources of civic pride in Detroit, that they are stuck with a dated and worn out venue, especially when you have had Ford Field and Comerica built within the past twelve years or so, as well as the Palace really not being all that old.

I grew up outside of Green Bay, WI, and I'm seeing actually the opposite. For years, all that was in Green Bay was Lambeau Field, which really wasn't even thought of being used aside from the portion of home games it hosed every season (the Packers always had one or two home games in the bigger Milwaukee market at Counry Stadium until Mike Holmgren told the fans of Milwaukee that they had to come up to see the games), and the Brown County Arena, which was undersized fifteen years after it was built. When the Resch Center was built and Lambeau Field were redone this past decade, things really opened up. Aerosmith has been through once, as well as ZZ Top, and a whole rash of country singers. Its always guaranteed that at least one or two A-list acts will be through during the summer. Also, Lambeau is finally starting to do summer concerts, and was successful in selling out when Kenny Chesney had a show there a few weeks ago. Now, all the Packers organization needs to do is bring a rock act in to exorcize the hick vibe leftover in Lambeau from the Chesney concert.