Floppy Feet

SOOoooo...I need surgery. On BOTH of my feet. On BOTH the inside AND outside bones of BOTH of my feet. Wow. Talk about one craptastic trip to the doctor! Here's the story and explanation.

I had been having pain in my left foot for a few months. My sister-in-law had a bunionectomy and encouraged me to see a podiatrist. Jason, God bless his nagging little heard, had been "encouraging" (read pestering) me to see a podiatrist so I finally made an appointment.

I don't even think my feet look that funky! I think they're kind of cute actually..see. So I thought he'd tell me to wear better shoes and send me on my way. At worst I thought he'd say I had a slight bunion and give me some toe spreader thing. Oh no my friends. No sir-eeee!

They took some x-rays of my feet and let me tell you...beneath that red toe nail polish and soft skin are some ME-EEESSSED UP bones!!! It was a little scary actually. Here's a picture of what the bones are supposed to look like, with MY bones drawn over in red, and yes, that joint that looks like it's in too far is indeed in too far. The angle there between those bones is supposed to be 4-8 degrees. 8 being VERY high. Yup, you guessed it. That number 16 there indicates that MY angle is indeed 16 (one one foot and 14 on the other.)

Here's why my feet are so messed up. First, a little anatomy lesson. You're foot is like a tripod. These here three points make up the tripod.

I, aparantly have an "unstable foot type". Wouldn't have mattered what shoes I wore, it's genetic. See that there joint that's circled. Aparantly it's VERY loosey goosey and all messed up. It causes instability. The foot tries to correct that instability by spreading the top two points of the tripod (a.k.a. your bones and joints) apart wider and wider. This never fixes the problem of the floppy joint and therefore the spreading of the tripod points never stops. If it had been caught much earlier they could have put me in orthodics to stop the spreading. But apparantly my case is so severe that surgery is the only option. THEN I will have to wear orthodics for the rest of my life to keep the bones from spreading back out. Awesome.

Here's the real kicker! The surgery should be done one foot at a time. And I would have to be off my feet COMPLETELY for an ENTIRE SIX WEEKS after each surgery. Hello!? Stay at home mom here...who's planning to have more kiddos!? Are you kidding me!?

When I told my doctor this he totally understood but was also totally not happy. The solution is to put me in orthodics to keep it from getting worse and then I have to wait until my youngest child is at least 5 years old and in school to have the surgeries.

The upswing. He tells me the orthodics will stabalize my flopping joint, allowing me to propell properly off of the ball of my foot. Translation: they'll make me a faster runner! :)