loving your feet.

I had a podiatry appointment today. As I mentioned a while back, I'd like to run again. A half marathon at most. As luck would have it, I just ran into my marathon mate Tzel today at the local Filipino grocery store where I was stocking up on my politically incorrect deoderant. Anyway...

My podiatry appointment was quite educational. Why didn't I just go to a bonafide foot doctor in the first place?! Marathon training would have been a lot easier if I just did this. UGH! She examined my feet and gave me the information about foot care and being a diabetic. If you're curious about this, click here. She emphasized that I need to check my feet everyday! Today's checkup was fine. She said that my feet are normal. However, I need to keep my blood sugars in check and and take care of my feet. Worse case scenario, this could happen to me and I could have my feet amputated. Did anyone catch that episode of Grey's Anatomy? Scary stuff. So here's another thing I need to do along with the other LONG list of stuff I need to do in order to take care of my diabetes. UGH!

Do the legwork now folks. Technically, if we all live long enough, everyone will eventually get diabetes. The pancreas just poops out. Some people's just poop out before others, that's all. So do the legwork now. Eat well. Exercise reguarly. Let go of all that processed food. Life will be easier, I swear.

Anyway... it looks like I have weird feet. I have Morton's Toe. That's just a fancy way of saying that my second toe is longer than my fist. My college friend Arvin used to say that these were called "sex toes" because people with longer second toes were prone to have better sex. Um... I like Arvin's reasoning better. The podiatrist pointed that both my second and third toes are longer than my first toe, which is even more weird. (I like to think this just means I have "extra sexy toes.") She then showed me how having such weird toes, along with flat feet makes me callus the the places that I tend to callus. (Damn! Diabetes. Extra weird Morton's toe. Wide, flat feet. God hates me.) She then went on about the kinds of shoes I should wear (motion control for you runners out there), what to look for in a shoe, and suggested that I get a custom orthotic. With my student discount, her office can do it for me for $225-$250 as opposed to $450-$500. I told her that I already have a custom orthotic. She explained that since I got it at a retail store, it's probably not as customized as I think. (I think she's right because even with the custom orthotic, which I've been using for the past two years, there's still minor blistering.) She said I should get it from a doctor and not a retail store - no matter how specialized they seem to be. See? I totally should have gone to a foot doctor first!

Anyway... I'm not jumping on the orthotic bandwagon just yet. So far, the regular cushion from the running shoes I have works. Plus, she totally approved the shoes. The new socks I have are also fantastic. If, down the line I have additional foot problems, I'll consider the orthotics. Right now, I think I'm okay. I just need to give my feet some daily TLC.

And that's the end of today's foot lesson.