My physician looked at my toes and exclaimed, “Oh, you poor
thing!”—hardly the sort of comment I wanted to hear from her. My toes were
twisted and bent. Besides being ugly as sin, they hurt; why had I postponed
doing something about them for many years? She sent me off to a podiatrist and
a radiologist. An X-ray confirmed that my feet were permanently deformed. The
toe bones bent at alarming angles (there was also damage to the joints as a
result of osteoarthritis, but that’s another story).
I feared that the podiatrist would recommend repeating the
bilateral bunion surgery I had back in 1984. After that I hobbled about in
Frankenstein boots for a long time, then was fitted for orthotics and went back
to normal shoes. I hoped I could wear high heels again after the surgery, but
it has never been possible. Some simple dressy shoes with one-inch heels are
the best I have been able to manage. The podiatrist gave me the good news that
she would not recommend bunion surgery for me, and the bad, that my feet were
too far gone for it. Instead, she suggested better shoes and toe splints that
would help align my toes.
Obviously, I will spend the rest of my life with these damaged feet. I can blame my DNA for the hammer toes and flat feet (my
feet are identical to my Aunt Edith’s), but can blame no one but myself for
most of the deformity. Back in the early sixties, I wore narrow shoes with spike heels and pointed toes, much like the shoes young women wear now. Somehow I
forced my feet into them, and wore them as I walked to a subway station,
climbed steps, and worked in an office where every woman dressed similarly. We
thought we looked good, and would not have considered wearing flat shoes. My
feet often hurt (I would surreptitiously remove my shoes and leave them under
my desk), but that seemed a small price to pay. Probably the pain showed in my
face, though. I might have looked better in flat shoes and with a pain-free
smile on my face.
As a child, I read about the pathetic nineteenth-century
wealthy Asian women who bound their feet, and became unable to walk. You’d think everyone today would be
wiser, but no doubt the great-granddaughters of those women are wearing shoes
having five-inch heels and pointed toes. Whenever I see a young woman wearing
those awful shoes and looking uncomfortable, I want to give her a lecture and
show her my feet. I have never had the courage to do so, but maybe one of them
will read this.
You would think that shoes could be made to look pretty
without damaging their wearers’ feet, but no manufacturer seems able to do so. Most
comfortable shoes are frankly ugly. I love my REI hiking boots, the most
comfortable footwear I’ve ever owned, but the options for wearing them are a
bit limited. SAS, Clark’s, and Dansko shoes
are well made and nice-looking; they are for casual wear, though. I want
something to wear for attending weddings and other occasions. Can’t some shoe
designer come up with beautiful, dressy wide shoes that are healthy as well?
