Member-only story
My Quest for the Perfect Shoe
How foot pain and OCD have drove me mad this year
I’ve worked in retail for over twenty years. In the field I chose, I am basically on my feet for my entire shift, and I have tracked myself averaging about nine miles a day of walking. Somewhere along the line, midway through my career, the company decided to switch from tile flooring to concrete flooring. You would think this to be about the same wear and tear on the body, but it turns out, tile flooring actually has some springiness to it, even if you don’t always notice it. As such, since I’ve been working on concrete floors, I’ve noticed some dramatic changes in my body.
At the end of the day now, my feet started killing me. And my lower back and sciatica became a problem. I developed horrible plantar fasciitis and heel pain so that usually before my workday was over I would be limping crazily, lurching around like the monster from Frankenstein and drawing odd looks from customers, random strangers asking me if I was okay. I was recently also diagnosed with heel spurs, the one on my right foot being quite severe.
I do not really have the option at this point to change careers, so instead I began looking for ways to alleviate the pain myself. The most obvious answer to me was to find better shoes. Basically all dress shoes are out of the question. Luckily…
