I recently bought new shoes.
Now this in and of itself isn’t monumental news. I don’t buy shoes all the time, but I do get new ones as needed.
What makes this time different is the kind of shoe, though you might not be able to tell the difference just by looking at them.
These are lace-up leather shoes, not precisely sneakers but not precisely oxfords either. They’re made by Birkenstock, a well-known brand, though not one I’ve favored over the years.
Here’s the thing: they have a very firm sole – they are not in any way flexible.
It turns out that I need shoes like this, because I not only have bunions, I have very rigid big toes, which is to say arthritis in the toe. There’s even a medical name for that: hallux rigidus.
And according to my physical therapist, shoes with very flexible soles aggravate that big toe, leading to various kinds of problems. Continue reading “A Matter of Feet”…