Reply #9: Last year I thought I was just going to be a cripple for life.

[noamnety]

It hasn't totally fixed itself, but it's better, tolerable now.

The best shoes for me - and the ONLY ones I could walk in for a while there - was the RX line of crocs, which aren't sold in retail stores, you have to go to a foot doctor's office to buy them, but you don't need an appointment to see a doctor. The aren't quite as frightful looking as regular crocs - they don't have the giant trademark holes all over the tops. They have a softer different heel bed than regular ones, and I will never bad mouth crocs again because they did save me.

I ended up replacing all my shoes last year because of this. Now I basically wear those, redwing boots (I researched the model online), and dansko clogs (also after researching online). Stretching helps, I tried the boot thing for sleeping in but I toss and turn a lot and it interfered with my sleep because of that. Plus my partner snores and I spend a lot of time kicking him vigorously each night, and the boot interfered with that so I had to retire it.

I was working out for a short time and the weight loss helped a lot, but then grad school swung into gear again and I couldn't fit it in my schedule, I've put on a few pounds again, and I feel it in that foot as a result. It sucks that dropping weight is the most effective fix! This is my last week of my degree program though, so I'm thinking I will give myself a week of well-earned laziness then get back to working out again since it did make a difference. I'm not a go-to-the-gym-and-jump-around-in-public kind of person, I was just doing stuff in my living room in private. I incorporated standing on the edge of the stairs and slowly going up on my toes and then down so my heels went below the steps, 3 sets of 10 reps, that's supposed to be a good stretch for it.