With my right foot, I had been to a number of doctors over the years and none had solved the problem. I’ve had bone shaved off one of my toes, I’ve had various pairs of orthotics, I’ve had a doctor kill a nerve using alcohol shots. I was finally at the point of asking the latest doctor I was dealing with (last fall) to cut off the 2 small toes on my right foot, hoping that would put an end to the problem. Of course, the doctor refused and instead sent me to physical therapy.

I had always pooh-pooh’d physical therapy based on some negative experiences I had years ago (didn’t do anything for me). However, this time I got some good people. After the course was done, my foot was improving but I was still experiencing pain when I walked or hiked for hours at a time. However, I learned that what physical therapists seem to do mostly is massage and stretching.

Well, I can easily reach my own feet, so I can do that myself. So I started doing my own self-massage of my feet, ankles and calves (actually my whole body) and have had very good success doing this. It also feels great! I also brought a book on stretching exercises on Amazon (applies to the whole body) and have learned new ways to stretch. This has helped greatly also. (btw: if you do a goggle search on self-massage, you will get a lot of hits).

But still having some foot pain, I was looking for some other solutions. When using the treadmill at the club, I tried running barefoot, instead of in shoes and voila, no pain! And it felt pretty good. Hmmmm. Next I took the orthotics out. I have been using orthotics for many years as foot doctors always seem to want to recommend them. Well guess what? Almost no pain any more in my right foot! I have to wonder if the pain I have lived with all these years was rooted in the orthotics? This experience makes me even more reluctant to see a podiatrist in the future. I guess, surgeons like to operate and podiatrists seem to like to prescribe orthotics, whether you need these solutions or not. It’s a shame when doctors have to prey on patients to make their money.