Because diabetes puts you at high risk for slow healing sores, it’s important that you get your callus checked by a doctor. Even with home treatment, your callus can become an open sore that gets infected. This can make it hard to recover. Make sure you call or visit your doctor before trying to treat your callus.  Your doctor may recommend medical treatments to help you heal faster, or they might just monitor your progress while you do home treatments. Calluses are typically not serious, but they may lead to an infection if your skin breaks open. Typically, you won’t experience any pain from a callus. However, it may start to feel painful or swollen if you develop an infection or you have broken or injured skin. If you notice any pain or inflammation, see your doctor to make sure everything is okay.  Your doctor can offer you medical treatments to speed up your recovery. If your callus gets infected, it can quickly become a serious issue. Don’t hesitate to see your doctor. You can usually get rid of a callus on your own. However, sometimes they can be stubborn, especially if they’re very thick. Fortunately, your doctor can offer you additional treatments that may work for you. Talk to your doctor to find out if this is an option for you.  Tell your doctor how long you’ve had the callus and what you’ve done to try to remove it. Your doctor may want to do an X-ray to make sure you don’t have a foot abnormality that’s making the callus get worse. In addition to home treatments, your doctor can do a medical procedure. This may include removing the top layer of the callus or using medication to dissolve the callus.
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One-sentence summary -- Talk to your doctor before treating your callus if you have diabetes. Consult your doctor if your callus becomes painful or inflamed. Visit your doctor if your callus doesn’t go away with home care. Discuss your treatment options with your doctor if the callus persists.


Fresh air is one of the greatest ways to get rid of bad smells in the house, because the smells can be carried out of the open windows and replaced with clean air. In spring, summer, and fall, open a few windows throughout the house. To create a breeze, open windows that are on opposite sides of the house. In winter when it’s not possible to keep the windows open, open a window for just a minute to let in some fresh air. Fans are great for boosting the refreshing power of clean air. When you have the windows open, turn on ceiling and standing fans in the house to help create a bigger breeze and get the air moving. Sunlight contains ultra-violet rays, which have the power to kill things like smell-causing mold and bacteria. No matter what time of year it is, open the curtains and drapes throughout the house on a sunny day and let the UV rays in. Sunlight can be an effective odor killer for carpets, furniture, pet areas, pillows and cushions, and other household items that can smell. Baking soda is one of the most popular deodorizers around, because it’s effective and cheap. To absorb smells around the house, sprinkle some baking soda into a couple of small dishes or plates and distribute them around the house. The baking soda will absorb odors from the rooms and get rid of bad smells. To further deodorize household items, sprinkle baking soda over things like carpets, furniture, mattresses, and other possible odor sources. Leave the baking soda for 30 minutes, and then vacuum it up. Vinegar is also an effective deodorizer that you can use to absorb bad smells around the house. Fill a few small bowls with vinegar and place the bowls in smelly areas around the house, such as:  Musty basements Bathrooms Kitchens Bedrooms Charcoal is similarly a powerful odor absorber that can be used in many rooms and inside appliances to deodorize. Be sure to use pure charcoal and not something that contains lighter fluid. Place a few pieces of charcoal on plates and distribute them around the house. You can put them in:  Closets Refrigerator and freezer Living areas Certain houseplants are known to clean the air, and they may help to control odors in the house as well. Houseplants you can grow around the house for air-purification include:  Snake plants English ivy Lady palms Dracaena
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One-sentence summary -- Open windows. Use fans to increase circulation and get fresh air flowing. Let the sun shine in. Use baking soda. Try vinegar instead to absorb odors. Deodorize with charcoal. Invest in air-purifying houseplants.


A Perkins braillewriter is a device much like a standard typewriter, except for it has only six keys. Purchase heavy paper to feed into the top of the device. Braillewriters start at approximately $700 and come in a variety of shapes and sizes.  Some are designed to be used with a single hand or only require a soft touch. There are also a variety of high tech braillewriters, to be discussed shortly. The large key in the center of the braillewriter is the space bar. Three keys to each side of the space bar represent the six dots alignments in braille. To type a cell, you will need to hold down the keys for all of the necessary dots at the same time. The slightly raised key to the far left is the line down key and the key parallel to it on the far right is the back space key.  There will also be a large curved piece of plastic on the top of the machine that serves as a cartage return as well as grey nobs on the side that are used to roll the paper into the machine. In braille the dots are sometimes signified with numbers, where the upper left hand dot is 1, the middle left dot is 2 and the bottom left hand dot is 3. The right column similarly descends from 4-6. If we represent the dots this way, the braillewriter keyboard is arranged: 321 (space) 456. Typewriters, of course, are fairly cumbersome by modern standards. Luckily, there are now electric braillewriters that work on similar principles. Devices like the Mountbatten Brailler and the Perkins Smart Brailler allow you to store documents electronically. They also have audio support and training exercises. Recent Macintosh computers allow you to program a keyboard or even the touch screen of your iPad to serve as a braille typewriter. In this case keys on a typical QWERTY keyboard can be reprogrammed to have the same functions they would on a brailler.
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One-sentence summary --
Get a braillewriter. Learn the keys. Go high tech.