What is wrong with my foot? How did I know?

I have been asked to explain what is wrong with my foot that I would need to have my foot amputated.
When I was diabetic I developed neuropathy in my feet, but I also had good circulation. These two things combined can lead to Charcot's Arthropathy. Not all who have these two conditions suffer from Charcot's only a lucky 20% of type 1 diabetics and only about 1% of all diabetics (type 1 and 2 combined).
What happens is that the malfunctioning nerves from the neuropathy tells the foot it needs more blood, resulting in increased circulation. This increased circulation then starts to wash away the calcium inside the bones and they can become weak and fracture. When they fracture it is not one break but many breaks, like a mirror shattering, and in some cases it is like an earthquake in your foot, and the plates move and shift. In the case of my right foot my heel first fractured in many places and then as time went on it shifted and then the heel gave way and basically no longer exists. There are pieces of it here and there in my heel area and if you look at my foot from the outside you can see bones pushing against the sides and bottom of my foot.
Yes it can very painful and as time has gone by the pain has gotten worse. No, I cannot walk on it more that a few steps. No, the fashionable CRO (Charcot Restraint Orthotic) walkers could not stop the progression. In fact the final crumble of my heel happened after I had been wearing the boots.
I was at work August 14th, the day after my transplant anniversary, sitting at my desk at work and I knew that something was very wrong. I went home early in the afternoon and have not worked at the office since. When I got home that day I inspected my foot and could see it was in an active state - swollen, red and hot to the touch. I went into a full contact cast for 9 weeks with no weight bearing a few days later. I did not run immediately to the ER, I had an appointment already scheduled for Tuesday and I knew what was wrong. I kept my foot up and iced and stopped using it as much as possible. I knew I was in trouble and that my foot may not make it. The first time it broke 7 years ago the second thing out of the doctor's mouth was" your foot may be amputated". The first break was not diagnosed correctly for 3 months. By the time it was diagnosed it had already started to deform. If it had not been for my transplant doctor I may never have gotten a proper diagnosis and lost my foot sooner. By the way when these fractures occur it is usually a non-event. The first time I stepped off a chair and slightly stepped awkward, in the last episode with my right foot, I stepped hard going down a stair.
As one doctor said to me about Charcot's, there is nothing I could have done to prevent it from happening and nothing I did made it happen. It just happens.
As far as my left foot it has had a minor Charcot's fracture in the heel and the bones below my toes have fractured several times leaving them very deformed after healing. But at this point in time it is no danger, and I watch it carefully for any changes. Hopefully it will stay stable.
I hope that answer your questions.
By the way if you go to http://www.ballert-op.com/pdf/BKInstructionSheet.pdf you can see what my first prosthetic will look like and see what the process will be once we get to that point.
Let me know if you have any more questions and I will try to answer them the best I can. We all are learning.