Immersion Foot: Wonder What Winter Will Bring?

[dom15931]

Well after my mishap last May in the ADK's during two warm days with icy cold wet swollen feet from all the snow I am looking to see how 'susceptible' my feet are going to be to getting cold easier.

Immersion foot aka Trench Foot is not frostbite but is a cold injury from prolonged exposure to wet, cool-cold conditions. These pics I took of my feet go good with any google'd description of the condition.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/563430964vKqsGi

I want to get to the ADK's with my girlfriend this winter to do some skiing and throw in a Whiteface hike also and am a bit anxious to see just how my feet will 'work'. My feet are like an untested new brand of boots to me now. I just don't know how well they are going to perform in cold weather.

So far I have been lucky. I work outdoors primarily and I was acctually happy the other day when my feet where a little cold and damp for several hours. They felt normal. One day at a job site I had to wear steel toe boots for several hours in temps well below freezing. I was again happy not to notice no unusual susceptibility to cold. I have just been waiting to feel them getting too cold too easily as the doc's told me to expect that. Luckily I can't even 'dream it up' that I am more susceptible now. I will only know I guess when I after a real excursion in the winter. At least I know the damage, if any, is not severe.

I still have a slightly noticeable amount of nerve damage. It is strange. If I tap my foot on a hard surface there is a watery feeling as if there is water under the skin. I have heard others describe this same type of post cold-injury feeling. It too is slowly going away...or I am slowly getting used to it.

I hope someone who sees or has seen those pics of my feet will think twice about the dangers of getting a good dose of plain old cold wet feet. It doesnt have to be below freezing or even close, especially if there is snow pack, to cause permanent damage if you exposed for an extended period of time. Trust me, when your feet look like mine did, feel like they are on fire, look twice their size, and fail to warm up after hours of drying and wrapping them in blankets you will really wish you hadn't forgotten the proper proper equipment and just went ahead anyway figuring 'it's warm out, Ill be fine'.

Anybody got a great boot recommendation?

-Dom

 

[ColdRiverRun]

It's great that your not feeling it much having done the things you've done already. My first thought reading the opening was, "just get plastics and wear them for the rest or your life". I was going with the idea that your feet are going to be so on your mind that your going to believe you feel it anyway. From the first step out of your car to everyone along the way > are they cold, how are they doing, should I turn back, are they getting numb, is that pain just a spot in my boot or the cold setting in? I'd do a truck load of testing at home so that your few trips north don't become just a,"how are my feet doing" trip. Good luck.

 

[sleeping bear]

I've had trench foot before and seen it on others- and I agree, not fun, and fairly easy to get.

When I had, and when I've seen it on others, I have not noticed the significant swelling that you have. Typically I've seen the extreme wrinkly bottoms of feet that go white, completely numb, and feel like wood. This is then painful when it rewarms. I've never noticed swelling; yours must have been particularly bad.

I recently came to the sad conclusion that I have really messed up my feet by getting them too cold too often (although never had frostbite). This means that AS SOON as my feet start to feel cold or a little numb I'm putting handwarmers in- no matter what. Just stop, and do it. This is working well for me, even though I feel like a wuss.

Just be careful with your feet, good luck.

 

[dom15931]

I've had trench foot before and seen it on others- and I agree, not fun, and fairly easy to get.

When I had, and when I've seen it on others, I have not noticed the significant swelling that you have. Typically I've seen the extreme wrinkly bottoms of feet that go white, completely numb, and feel like wood. This is then painful when it rewarms. I've never noticed swelling; yours must have been particularly bad.

Swelling can occur. What happened with me then was that I still had like 9 or 10 miles to go after a cold night by a fire to get out of the woods. They were already swollen. My feet were literally stuck in my boots, swealling because of the significantly lowered blood temp I believe initially. Walking on feet like that amplifies/causes tendinitis, which I had in conjunction with the immersion condition. It took about two weeks for the swelling to go down. I was deskbound at work for a mandatory two weeks per my family doc and in the initial week I could walking was excruciating.

Had I not kept my feet warm, I may have gotten frost bite. The air temp that night was near freezing. My feet were so cold that I at one point when I was drying out my boots around the fire I acctually found myself with one bare foot in the snowpack and did not realize it. Not fun. The rotten snow on the way out resulting basically in the blood temp in my feet going way back down. I had managed to warm up my feet and dry them out somewhat that night but the situation would simply reoccur the next day.

I stayed unusually calm through the whole ordeal to conserve energy and keep my spirits up. Panicking would have been a very bad move. I saved that for when I was in my motel room and they weren't warming up, were numb, and I knew I was headed to the ER not knowing if something was gonna end up needing cut off.