I've had malformed feet all my life. My big toes turn toward the other toes leaving big bulged like bunions. I always figured it had to do with wearing bad shoes when I was a child and lived with them. I bought shoes to fit around those awful toes and always managed. I wound up a hiker. If there was pain, it was never bad.
Then I developed hammer toes. The second toe on each foot began to cross over the third. According to web sites, this could be caused by bad shoes, either high heels or shoes that are too tight. However, I haven't worn high heels in years. I've always thought they were rather a silly fashion. As for tight shoes, I wear size elevens. I mostly wear canvas sports shoes with a certain amount of "give". I don't have to have supports because I was born with flat feet.
Up until the hammer toes, I had little trouble. Then at my yearly checkup, my doctor suggested I see a podiatrist who could operate on my feet. But yesterday, I found out that the hammer toes could not be repaired by surgery because my big toe is so deformed it would just continue to push on the other toes. This is a genetic problem, he told me. It was the same with the flat feet. (That explains my son's feet.)
The podiatrist finally suggested simple devices I could buy in any drugstore for $7, tubes to put over the second toe on either foot.
It helped right away. I am now pain free.
So I will live my life with crooked feet, accepting that my feet will never be pretty.
Then I developed hammer toes. The second toe on each foot began to cross over the third. According to web sites, this could be caused by bad shoes, either high heels or shoes that are too tight. However, I haven't worn high heels in years. I've always thought they were rather a silly fashion. As for tight shoes, I wear size elevens. I mostly wear canvas sports shoes with a certain amount of "give". I don't have to have supports because I was born with flat feet.
Up until the hammer toes, I had little trouble. Then at my yearly checkup, my doctor suggested I see a podiatrist who could operate on my feet. But yesterday, I found out that the hammer toes could not be repaired by surgery because my big toe is so deformed it would just continue to push on the other toes. This is a genetic problem, he told me. It was the same with the flat feet. (That explains my son's feet.)
The podiatrist finally suggested simple devices I could buy in any drugstore for $7, tubes to put over the second toe on either foot.
It helped right away. I am now pain free.
So I will live my life with crooked feet, accepting that my feet will never be pretty.
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