Growing up my father would always ask these obscure questions.

One of his favorites was “if you had to lose a toe, which toe would it be?”

My sister and I would argue about if it was better to forgo “the roast beef toe vs the had none.”My sister being the older, wiser one convinced me to always pick toe number 4, the no roast beef toe had to go. Her winning argument, all came down to the peep toe shoe. A classic peep toe you may just see the big toe and it’s side kick but every so often you’ll try on a peep toe shoe and darn if you also can’t see number 3 all squeezed in there. If that toe was missing you’d have “somethings not right” look going on. So #4 piggy, adios.

My office mate for years, a CDE (Certified Diabetes Educator) would tell patients that smoked these crazy, scary stats. The story goes like this: So say you and I both walk in a bar, we both have diabetes, we both order a gin and Bombay, extra lime. We both love skinny jeans and peep toe shoes. You go to the restroom and reapply your lipstick, I join the small gathering under the awning outside for a quick smoke. We do this for years, every Friday after work. My pack a day habit vs your stock in Mac.

Then one Friday you notice I’m not there. Then the next, then the next. You just think I’ve found a new Friday night location and then you see me.

But this time I’m in closed toe flats. And not even stylish, maybe even slightly orthopedic looking. Word on the street is, toe amputation. Big toe amputation.

Yep, those scary stats were 50% of people who smoke with uncontrolled diabetes will succumb to an amputation. 50%!! That’s YOU or ME! Thankfully there’s 2 key words there: Smoking and Uncontrolled.

You have choices. Not sure if your diabetes is controlled, here’s the number. Per the US Department of Health and Human Services, uncontrolled diabetes is defined as having a Hemoglobin A1C (HgbA1C) as greater than 9%.

Need to figure out how to get that number down? Check out more information on my blog, or explore how we can work together. 

Share this with all your smoking co-workers and friends with diabetes, and friends of friends.

Let’s keep the “which toe would you lose” question just a game.