06/04/2026
She watched her aunt and uncle lose their legs one toe at a time. Their circulation was never checked.
Xzabia Caliste, MD is a vascular surgeon in Albany, New York who grew up in a big Caribbean family in the Bronx, where two of her aunts and uncles had diabetes and high blood pressure that nobody ever connected to their feet.
She watched it happen in slow motion. One toe amputated. Then several. Then all of them. Then a below-the-knee amputation for one, an above-the-knee for the other. People who used to walk into family gatherings ended up in canes, then walkers, then wheelchairs, and stayed there until they died. Their circulation was never assessed. They never saw a vascular surgeon.
There are 400 leg amputations every single day in this country, and a lot of them did not have to happen. The disease behind them, peripheral artery disease, is quiet for years. It hides inside diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking, and it gets written off as normal aging.
Here is the part she wants people over 60 to hear. If you used to be able to walk a mile and now you have to stop because your leg cramps and gets tired, that is not just getting old. If you have a wound on your foot that will not heal, that is not nothing. If your foot hurts at night and you have to hang it off the side of the bed to feel better, that is your body telling you the blood is not reaching it.
You can ask for a circulation check. You do not have to wait for someone to offer it.
Caliste said it plainly:
"You are your own best advocate."
Listen to the full conversation on The Podcast by KevinMD. Link in the comments.
