When a day out on the hills leaves you reaching for the pills you just have to let a stranger see your feet
After months of worsening foot pain when walking I’d had enough and needed to do something about it. Several discussions on the OUTDOORSmagic forum later, I was able to deduce that I had laterally pronated ankles and in the last six months had also developed lumpy Achilles tendonitis. Ouch.
After a not-very-useful try-out of Superfeet in Rock and Run I knew that only custom-made orthotics would solve my pronation problem. I struggled on until the tendons got to the ‘agony when walking and limping badly the next day’ stage then went to my GP. But all the GP could do was refer me to the orthopaedic department at the hospital for either painful injections or having my nodules sliced off – neither option appealed to me and in any case, they would be treating was the symptoms, not the cause.
So, I needed to see a Podiatrist, but which one? I didn’t know anyone who had been to see the local guy, but Andrew Stanley at Settle came personally recommended. And Settle is a nice little town for a day out, so that “settled it”. Ahem.
When I rang Andrew up there was a several-week wait for an appointment, which I perceived to be a good sign as he was obviously in demand. Once there, the consulting room was a tad on the chilly side, especially when I changed into my shorts for the video gait analysis, but it was worth it: The video thing was amazing. Andrew slowed down the playback and explained everything that was happening in my walk. For the first time I realised that the pronation was directly leading to the Achilles problems, so sorting out one problem would also solve the other. I saw clearly on the video that every single time my feet struck the ground I was setting up torsional (twisting) forces in my knee joint and that half my tendon was in tension and the other half in compression so I was trying to bend the tendon over sideways like a footy banana. No wonder it hurt! Andrew said that my right foot was twice as bad as my left – but I could have told him that.
Next he explained what he was going to do to sort me out – he would manufacture a pair of temporary footbeds in fifteen minutes for me to try out for six weeks. At the end of that time, depending on how I was finding them, he would either modify them or make the permanent ones. True to his word, fifteen minutes later they were ready. He told me to wear them all the time and after perusing a selection of my shoes I'd brought to show him, he said that I should wear my Salomon Exit Lows to work.
Andrew's aim was that after six weeks the tightness in the tendons should have eased off and he could then sort out some exercises to improve them further.
A cheque changed hands and we were on our way. I have now been wearing the footbeds for three days. The verdict so far?
Mind boggling. They feel rather strange first thing in the morning and the right one feels especially huge in my shoes, but this soon wears off. My feet are now gently rotated outwards and my ankles and knee joints are straight and in line for the first time ever. I walk with my feet parallel to each other. This morning, for the first time for six months, I got out of bed and walked to the bathroom without limping. All this after three days; I can’t wait for the long-term benefits.
If you would like to know more information about Andrew or video gait analysis, see his website at www.reboundclinic.co.uk.
Oh, and the hospital orthopaedic appointment still hasn’t come through…..
© Jeannie Conley 2002
