Recently the outside of my left foot (the lateral border of the foot) started aching on long walks. The link below is what medicine has to say but my pain was nothing listed in the article. Yes, was, it’s cured. It was a problem of geometry:
I recently bought a new pair of shoes, sneakers? In the old days shoes had firm soles, now they are squishy rubber and they can’t deal with the very uneven Portuguese cobble stones. I thought that might be the cause. No! After several incidents…
I realized what the cause was. My walking cane! It was my father’s cane after he fell and broke his hip over 50 years ago. My mother used it after she fell and broke her hip. I fell, broke nothing, but the pavement left me quite bloody. I went home, cleaned up, and went for a walk to avoid the fear of falling. While resting, a woman who turned out to be a nurse asked for directions and we got to talking. She suggested I use a cane. I told her I had one at home but that I didn’t need one. Still, out of precaution, I started carrying the cane but I hardly ever any put any weight on it. That was, maybe, ten years ago.
With my new squishy shoes, I started using the cane more often and that was the cause of the problem! By pushing down on the cane with the right hand the load on the left foot moved from the center to the outside, to the the lateral border of the left foot.
Talk about side effects! Haaaa! Haaaa! Haaaa!
I stopped using the cane except on very uneven pavements and the pain is gone.
About 10 years ago, I began a conversation with an elderly woman in my congregation at a pot-luck. She used a cane to walk. She had bad arthritis and her posture was twisted and unbalanced from leaning forward and to the side while walking with the cane.
I invited her over to my house and began to teach her yoga. It was clear to me that she was weak and needed exercise. In addition, she was so unbalanced when using her cane that even I would have had trouble walking in that posture.
After a few months of weekly yoga lessons she was strong enough to get up from the floor by herself. She was even able to do Warrior 1 pose. She told me that she was doing yoga at home almost every day.
Finally I said to her, “I want you to walk across the room to me without your cane.”
After a tremulous moment of hesitation she walked across the room without her cane!
At the risk of sounding blasphemous – I felt like Jesus.
She gave up the cane. She still walks without her cane. We are still friends.
I nipped this early before anything at all. The foam or squish is for running as if on springs. Too much is illegal in the running competitions. Running on too much foam during training is a disservice to self.
I went to a gum sole. The Adidas and Puma gum soles run narrow. But not the Adidas Spezial. They run normal width.
I am wondering if I have a different problem. I have some pain in my heel related to achilles tendinitis in my right ankle.
Might be related to wearing socks to bed. The left ankle stretches out the sock, but the right narrow ankle does not. The slight pressure might reduce blood flow.
We will see…but no socks for now.
Restricted blood flow: In some cases, especially with very high compression levels, wearing socks to bed can restrict blood flow.strong text
Thanks for the suggestion and the link, most interesting, but it’s too ritualistic for my liking.
Today I switched to more traditional leather shoes with a stiffer sole to see how they compare. They are a bit more comfortable on uneven cobble stones and a bit better overall but the difference was quite small. Years ago shoes felt more like gloves, they didn’t call attention to themselves. American (Bostonian), Italian, and custom made shoes in Caracas were perfect. I once tried Spanish shoes, never again!
