Boy, was I wrong.
I sat on the cushioned chair as the podiatrist examined my feet, straightening and bending the little toes, feeling the arch of my foot. She had me stand up, and watched my arches flatten down to the cold linoleum.
I explained that I had sent photos of my right foot to my regular doctor, and that she had suggested I might have metatarsalgia. I had bought several pairs of shoes with a wider toe box, and orthotics with a metatarsal bump as the shoe salesperson recommended. I was trying to rest my feet as much as possible, which was not easy in my line of work. I teach fourth grade, so I stand and walk on concrete floors at least 6 hours a day. Sitting for long isn't feasible, because my classroom management would go out the window.
I have stopped going for walks, which I used to do frequently. It's all I can do to get through the day. Luckily I love to swim, because that's the only type of exercise that doesn't exacerbate my foot pain.
But even with all of these measures, the pain was getting worse. I had come to the podiatrist to find out what they could do, what I could do, to make my feet get better. Maybe I was wearing the wrong shoes, or needed different orthotics.
They had taken xrays of my feet while standing on a special platform. Weight-bearing poses, to see how my feet looked at their most uncomfortable position.
But the podiatrist didn't even look at my xrays. She could tell what was wrong from just rubbing my toes and moving them around. She said that I have the onset of hammertoes. That unlike normal little toes, my little toes curled up when in a resting position. They could easily be straightened by pushing on them, but would curl up again when let go. The muscles and bones in my feet no longer held up my arches, but let them go flat on the floor. And the foot pads under the ball of my feet was moving forward towards the toes, and eventually would not provide much cushion at all. She cut off the painful corn on the outside of my foot, but said that it would return because it would rub on my shoes.
I of course did not accept this. "What do I need to do to get better? Physical therapy? Massage? Acupunture? Exercise?" I asked. "Wouldn't that be nice?" she replied, "Unfortunately, there's not much you can do. We can order you custom orthotics to make you more comfortable in the meantime, but you can't change it. You were just born with this kind of foot." And then she proceeded to tell me what the future held: painful, cramped toes that don't uncurl, and surgery to straighten the toes and alleviate the pain.
I was stunned. Extremely disappointed. But seeing that I knew no other option, I took her prescription down the hall to the cast room, and got fitted for the $250 custom orthotics. They would take 4 weeks to arrive.
What a shitty week. I was so depressed about my foot future, and still in pain every day. I wore my old orthotics faithfully every day, but my feet felt just awful.
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