Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Fashion hurts

The weekend before last I played several games of beach volleyball and had a great time. The next day I began experiencing pain in my legs. It felt like sore muscles so I immediately chalked it up to running around in the sand playing volleyball and popped a few ibuprofen.

The following day I had pain again so I mentioned it to my trainer when I was at my personal trainer appointment. He had me do some intense stretching exercises that seemed to help, temporarily. I took ibuprofen again the next day and everything seemed to be alright.

This past weekend I didn't play volleyball but I started feeling pain in my legs again. This led me to change my conclusion about the source of the pain. Now I think its from wearing flip flops so much.

See, when I was 14 I had to go to a podiatrist because of chronic foot/leg pain. It was determined that my having very little arch in my feet caused the bones to grow out of alignment. I was given custom-fitted orthotics to wear in my shoes which provided arch support and inner heal elevation and I never had the foot or leg pain again.

However, this spring I taught myself how to wear flip flops because I wanted to be fashionable. This probably wouldn't have been a big deal for most people with sufficient arches, or people who wear closed shoes everyday to work. But I've been wearing flip flops everyday, all day long, since the spring and I think my legs are finally telling me that fashion hurts.

After returning from the beach last Sat I began wearing closed, lace-up shoes with my orthotics inside. I immediately found some relief from the leg pain, bolstering my belief that the flip flops were the culprit. Sun, Mon, and Tues I again wore shoes with orthotics and didn't need to take the ibuprofen. But today, my 4th day of wearing shoes and orthotics, my legs are hurting again enough that I had to take ibuprofen.

I'm at a loss. I really thought the shoes and orthotics were the answer until today. Now I'm not sure WHAT is causing the leg pain. I'm going to avoid flip flops through the rest of this week and see how I feel. If I'm still having pain next week I'm making a doctor's appointment.

Crush du Jour: Brett Favre

6 comments:

anne marie in philly said...

spouse has this same problem. I just read him your text and his advice to you is "you may need a new orthotics prescription. even with the orthotics, your feet change as you age. see a doctor as soon as possible."

from the horse's mouth to you.

girlfriend, NEVER wear flip flops or high heels...bad for your legs/back/knees/spine. I wear nurse clogs...no problems. but then again, I do have arches.

MEH big time on the crush...I don't do assholes! (heh heh heh)

PS - word is "humble" - why, yes, I AM, what makes you ask?

Anonymous said...

The older I get (and God knows I am getting up there), the more and more I understand my mother's seemingly endless refrain of "Don't go cheap when it comes to shoes -- you're fucked if your feet hurt."

What were the odds she could actually be right about something?

Anonymous said...

Spent 25+ years of my life in high top sneakers. Met the SO who tried to put me in all these different shoes.

Nope, gimme my high tops. Besides I'm in a job now where I can wear pretty much what I want, shorts, t-shirts, sneakers... they all fly at this job.

robertga99 said...

I live in flip flips from March-November almost. I love them! However, I haven't had foot issues and it sounds like you have. I hope you or the Doctor finds out what it is.

tornwordo said...

The podiatrist told me to never wear flip-flops or go barefoot. I have worn prescription inserts in my shoes for 15 years now.

cb said...

I still love me some Brett-- even tho' he stunk up the joint on Thursday.