The post-frame saga of myself and shoes has been a long, involved, multistep process. I have been in and out of inserts. I have developed calluses, developed blisters, changed shoes, walked, ran, walked shoes until they really couldn't be walked any more…
On Tuesday, the saga of myself and shoes entered another phase. I now have custom-fitted orthotics in both shoes. This is not my first brush with orthotics—I had one made for my right foot, post-frame, but (and I can't really remember the details) wound up switching back into my normal inserts after a fairly short period of time.
Towards the end of this most recent school year, a pain had been developing on the bottom of my right foot. My walking distance grew limited and it became clear that something would need to be done. I had my recent appointment with the surgeon (see: last entry) and, as it turned out, a bone growth had caused a bone in my foot not to grow to its fullest potential, which resulted in pain.
The solution? An orthotic.
So, on Tuesday, I got a pair of orthotics. Technically speaking, only the right foot really needed one, but the left shoe got one as well so it wouldn't feel left out (or, in more fair and pseudo-medical terms, so there would not be an imbalance between the two feet).
When I first saw the orthotics, they were made of what looked like corkboard. I placed my feet in them and they fit wonderfully. The surgeon took my right foot, felt around at the bones and placed some dots on it with lipstick. He then pressed the foot to the unfinished orthotic, took it away, and left me.
I started a game of 2048.
He returned. The orthotic was still made of what looked like corkboard, but featured a soft pad which was to keep weight off the more troublesome parts of my foot. The pad was made of the softest material they had, but I was still skeptical. The orthotic no longer flowed nicely around the foot. The doctor expressed his doubts about the pad and had me schedule an appointment for Friday in case the orthotics needed tweaking. He took the orthotics back.
I reached about 70,000 points in my game of 2048.
When the orthotics returned, the cork and pad were covered in a layer of black-and-blue foam. The doctor put them in my shoes and I was good to go. He told me it would take a few days to get used to the orthotics and urged me to walk around in them, make sure they were working.
For the next few days, I wore the orthotics essentially nonstop.
It hurt. A lot.
The right one, surprisingly, got better fairly quickly. Once my foot got used to the new amount of support (which was much greater than anything I'd ever had before), it felt almost normal. But the left, the one which was really just to balance out the other and served no needed purpose… Every step I took hurt. I hobbled around the house, convinced I just needed to wear the orthotic for longer. I knew I was supposed to go on a walk or something, but I could barely walk from one end of the house to the other.
To be fair, I made some progress over those first few days, but it was really just getting used to the pain.
So we kept the Friday appointment. I described my problem and the doctor took a look at my foot. As it turned out, I had a tendon which was jutting out a little bit, causing the pain. He cut a groove in the orthotic and sent me on my way.
It did the trick. I can wear the orthotics again and, honestly, it feels great.
Addendum to the most recent post: I mentioned last time panic over the possibility of cancer. I've calmed down quite a bit. I've gone through everything logically and I think I should be safe. Whenever I comment on a bone growth hurting, my mother asks me if the growth has grown (most recently, we were talking about a growth above my right knee which is slated for surgical removal in July). I always answer in the negative, but that's really just guesswork. I honestly have no idea if it's grown or not.
Every year(ish), I go in to get my eyes checked out. And, every year, my vision is worse than the year before. And, every year, I had no idea that my vision had deteriorated. I honestly hope that this isn't like that, one of those situations where I don't notice the gradual accumulation of changes leading to…well, leading to nothing good.
But, once more, I am fine. I have calmed down and relaxed. Perhaps part of that was due to the distraction of spending half a week walking on a tendon (pro tip: don't try it), but still, calm is calm.
