Foot Troubles

One day when I was pregnant with Clara, I felt a strange pain in the middle of my foot. It felt as if there was a bone that needed to pop but it was in a location that made it impossible to flex and pop it. I took several odd steps trying to flex in just the right spot and eventually it popped and felt much better. I didn't think much of it and just chalked it up to one of the many strange pregnancy-related ills that I was experiencing. I felt the same sensation a handful of times in the years since then and then in the last few months, the number of incidences has gone way up. It was happening every 2-3 weeks.

It happened again when I was in Carlsbad in July, and I mentioned it in passing to Margaret. She said it sounded like fallen arches. Annnnnnd of course flip flops are the worst thing you can wear with arch problems. Just great.

Part of the reason I wear flip flops so much is because my little toes are a bit deformed and they rub against my shoes giving me awful corns and causing the toenails to become really thick. I'm sure you were just dying to know that about me :) They get bad in the winter when I'm wearing shoes all the time, but I get relief for 9 months out of the year when I'm wearing my flip flops and they are able to heal a bit.

When I got home from West Texas, I started having some other issues with my feet. The bones in the top of my foot started hurting a little as well as my ankles. I decided to say farewell to my flip flops and sandals without any arch support (which is the majority of my footwear) and splurged on a pair of birkenstocks. Linsey has a pair and I tried them on when I was in Pecos. They had arch support and because the straps are located so far back on the sandal, my foot hardly moved at all in the shoe.

I'm pretty cheap when it comes to my footwear, so I had to convince myself to splurge on a pair of expensive sandals. It's been several weeks now and I just realized the other day that I haven't had a single bit of pain since I've been wearing them. I'm actually a little amazed because I had convinced myself they wouldn't help. They have a weird ridge under the toes that bothered me at first, but I'm used to it now. I'm going to wear my shoes without any support on occasion, but they definitely won't be my choice for daily, all day wearing.

This has reinforced my decision to have the kids wear shoes and sandals with good support. Neither of them has ever worn flip flops. I've always thought that they were unsafe for feet that are running and playing and was uneasy because they don't offer a bit of protection. There have been several times that I've almost hurt my feet in my flip flops stepping off a curb wrong, it getting stuck, tripping, etc., so I can only assume the kids would have more problems since they've not been walking nearly as long as I have.

I think proper shoes are very important for young children whose feet are still growing. I've heard that foot injuries have skyrocketed since flip flops have become so popular in the last few years and I can only assume kids that grow up with no real foot support are going to have some major problems when they get older. I tried to find some new sandals for Clara once she outgrew hers and it's not going to be easy now that she's in big girl sizes. I haven't seen any that have a bit of support except for the sporty/water sandals. I can't wait until she has a strong opinion on what shoes she wears. That should be fun.