Many of you know that I have 'difficult' feet. I have tried many things to relieve the pain that I feel when walking around every day. Mostly, I have learned to live with it and try not to let it consume my life. Now that I have retired and am not on my feet on cement floors, I am not as uncomfortable but it does keep me from any exercise program ( that and my laziness). I used to walk about 2 miles a day almost every day, just to keep in shape and now I only walk to get from one place to another. I have tried many remedies which include seeing 3 different podiatrists to be fitted with 3 different orthotics for my shoes, acupuncture, surgery for a nerve problem in one foot, MANY different shoes with various amounts of arch support and finally going down to Ann Arbor to see a neurologist and being refereed to a doctor that injects my feet and calves about 4 times a year with botox to relieve the cramping and involuntary movements. The botox does take away the involuntary movements but not the uncomfortable feet. SO, a friend of mine who is a runner suggested I try one more alternative method of healing. This man specializes in "helping people who are frustrated by the inability to find relief for muscular pain and malfunctions as well as nerve entrapment's which may cause those difficulties." He has a couple of articles on a blog if you are interested in reading further. www.zemper.blogspot.com is his blog address. Anyway, I have received 6 sessions with him and am becoming a bit optimistic at this point. This treatment isn't for the weak because it involves deep tissue massage that is very painful. Everything he preaches goes the opposite of the podiatrists recommendations but my feet are feeling better. I do think that I suffer from what you would call plantar fascia but the podiatrists recommend 'immobilizing the arches and he is working on stretching and giving me more mobility plus getting rid of scar tissue that may be causing the problems. It is interesting because the orthotics that I put in my shoes (they were pretty expensive) always seem to hurt my arches but they told me that they were suppose to work. They never were comfortable though which is why I kept going to someone new all the time, looking for a different answer. This new therapist recommends wearing more flexible shoes as apposed to rigid shoes so I am taking this ones step at a time (pun intended). Like I said, if you are interested in further research about this topic, check out the blog articles. I will let you know if this problem goes away totally. He is more optimistic than I am but I have been at this for many years. I am giving him as much time as I think is necessary to try and solve this problem before I resort to amputation.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Feet
I know that this may seem like a strange topic and an even stranger picture but my feet have been on my mind lately.
Many of you know that I have 'difficult' feet. I have tried many things to relieve the pain that I feel when walking around every day. Mostly, I have learned to live with it and try not to let it consume my life. Now that I have retired and am not on my feet on cement floors, I am not as uncomfortable but it does keep me from any exercise program ( that and my laziness). I used to walk about 2 miles a day almost every day, just to keep in shape and now I only walk to get from one place to another. I have tried many remedies which include seeing 3 different podiatrists to be fitted with 3 different orthotics for my shoes, acupuncture, surgery for a nerve problem in one foot, MANY different shoes with various amounts of arch support and finally going down to Ann Arbor to see a neurologist and being refereed to a doctor that injects my feet and calves about 4 times a year with botox to relieve the cramping and involuntary movements. The botox does take away the involuntary movements but not the uncomfortable feet. SO, a friend of mine who is a runner suggested I try one more alternative method of healing. This man specializes in "helping people who are frustrated by the inability to find relief for muscular pain and malfunctions as well as nerve entrapment's which may cause those difficulties." He has a couple of articles on a blog if you are interested in reading further. www.zemper.blogspot.com is his blog address. Anyway, I have received 6 sessions with him and am becoming a bit optimistic at this point. This treatment isn't for the weak because it involves deep tissue massage that is very painful. Everything he preaches goes the opposite of the podiatrists recommendations but my feet are feeling better. I do think that I suffer from what you would call plantar fascia but the podiatrists recommend 'immobilizing the arches and he is working on stretching and giving me more mobility plus getting rid of scar tissue that may be causing the problems. It is interesting because the orthotics that I put in my shoes (they were pretty expensive) always seem to hurt my arches but they told me that they were suppose to work. They never were comfortable though which is why I kept going to someone new all the time, looking for a different answer. This new therapist recommends wearing more flexible shoes as apposed to rigid shoes so I am taking this ones step at a time (pun intended). Like I said, if you are interested in further research about this topic, check out the blog articles. I will let you know if this problem goes away totally. He is more optimistic than I am but I have been at this for many years. I am giving him as much time as I think is necessary to try and solve this problem before I resort to amputation.
Many of you know that I have 'difficult' feet. I have tried many things to relieve the pain that I feel when walking around every day. Mostly, I have learned to live with it and try not to let it consume my life. Now that I have retired and am not on my feet on cement floors, I am not as uncomfortable but it does keep me from any exercise program ( that and my laziness). I used to walk about 2 miles a day almost every day, just to keep in shape and now I only walk to get from one place to another. I have tried many remedies which include seeing 3 different podiatrists to be fitted with 3 different orthotics for my shoes, acupuncture, surgery for a nerve problem in one foot, MANY different shoes with various amounts of arch support and finally going down to Ann Arbor to see a neurologist and being refereed to a doctor that injects my feet and calves about 4 times a year with botox to relieve the cramping and involuntary movements. The botox does take away the involuntary movements but not the uncomfortable feet. SO, a friend of mine who is a runner suggested I try one more alternative method of healing. This man specializes in "helping people who are frustrated by the inability to find relief for muscular pain and malfunctions as well as nerve entrapment's which may cause those difficulties." He has a couple of articles on a blog if you are interested in reading further. www.zemper.blogspot.com is his blog address. Anyway, I have received 6 sessions with him and am becoming a bit optimistic at this point. This treatment isn't for the weak because it involves deep tissue massage that is very painful. Everything he preaches goes the opposite of the podiatrists recommendations but my feet are feeling better. I do think that I suffer from what you would call plantar fascia but the podiatrists recommend 'immobilizing the arches and he is working on stretching and giving me more mobility plus getting rid of scar tissue that may be causing the problems. It is interesting because the orthotics that I put in my shoes (they were pretty expensive) always seem to hurt my arches but they told me that they were suppose to work. They never were comfortable though which is why I kept going to someone new all the time, looking for a different answer. This new therapist recommends wearing more flexible shoes as apposed to rigid shoes so I am taking this ones step at a time (pun intended). Like I said, if you are interested in further research about this topic, check out the blog articles. I will let you know if this problem goes away totally. He is more optimistic than I am but I have been at this for many years. I am giving him as much time as I think is necessary to try and solve this problem before I resort to amputation.
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Awesome that you've connected with this person who sounds like he HEARS what you are saying and is working WITH your body. Love that. Love this post. Love the picture. Love you and your feet :)
ReplyDeleteRead the blog about your physical therapist. Sounds like a good way to go. Hope it works.
ReplyDelete