Feet Only a Mother Could Love

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a story about a childhood experience with a podiatrist, and the current state of my feet. Amy commented that she was addressing similar issues with her young son, so I thought it would be appropriate to share my mother's comments on the post. Although she corrected some of my memories, her version is at least as funny.

[I checked your blog and] I'd missed 3 entries!! One of which referred to your mom taking you to a NYC podiatrist! Now, young man, here's my memory: you fell down quite a bit when you were learning to walk and the pediatrician said it was due to pronation. Only the best for you said I, so I took you to the authoritative Dr. Stump (did that last name determine his choice of profession?) in NYC.

You happened to have been 2--not 5 - years old, and he said you not only pronated but also had flat feet. This could be cured if every day you would curl your toes around marbles and walk on the edges of your feet for 3 sessions of 45 minutes each--but he judged this would do more psychological damage to you (and me) than physical benefit, and he said that if he put wedges in your shoes, your hips would grow to accommodate that so that if you were an adult and in the army and not able to get the orthotics at any time of imprisonment, etc. (this man had been in several wars I gather), that it would ruin your hips and legs. His advice to me was to look the other way when you walked and ignore it all.

You would never be an Olympic runner, but there were other goals in life. Since he wanted wedges on the outside and the pediatrician wanted them on the inside of your feet (he did admit to a professional disagreement pods had with peds), I decided he was right: I should ignore the whole thing. BUT I AM AMAZED AT YOUR ADULT FOOTPRINT!!!!! AND DELIGHTED!! And here I'd been worrying about your possibly hurting your hips, knees, etc.! I've decided never to let anyone feel limited by typing! Not only can people, including the docs, be wrong, but the body and mind are remarkably self-healing!

Now that I'm fully enlightened as to your true condition, and appropriately relieved and delighted, I lament only that I didn't have you "running" more errands as a healthy teenager when I still could tell you what to do! What opportunities I missed!!!!!

Of course this all happened lo, so many years ago, and Amy's son will have the benefit of today's medical advancements. Still, I thought that it wouldn't hurt to hear the words of another mother that had been through this experience.