The agony of the feet

Tag : toe shoe

The agony of the feet

By Pam Mellskog
Longmont Times-Call
LONGMONT  Bev Bird tells clients to take their socks off and showher their stuff: calluses, corns, foot sores, ingrown nails, fungusand more.
Her job as a nurse with the Summertree Cares Foot Care Program atLongmont United Hospital isnt for everyone.
But some Longmont Senior Center members mark their calendars on thesecond and fourth Friday afternoons when she visits each month.
They tell friends they will be getting their feet done, thoughnail polish isnt part of the deal.
Instead, Bird first assesses each clients feet.
She mostly finds calluses built up too thick and ingrown toenails,both of which she removes with sharp paring knives and scissors.
Calluses, in general, can be a good thing. They protect, shesaid. But when they build up, its painful. It can be like walkingon a pebble.
Bird also documents chronic diseases such as diabetes, which putsthose of any age at greater risk of foot sores, she said.
If undetected and untreated, foot sores can get infected and leadto other medical complications.
Healthy feet make all the difference in how someone literally movesthrough life, Mountain View Foot & Ankle podiatrist Dr. RobertM. Smith said.
That care begins with proper shoe choices this autumn as peopleflip off sandals and tuck their feet into more restrictive shoes.
The transition into closed-toe shoes sort of unmasks problems,Smith said.
Issues often stem from too much friction on spots around the foot,he said.
Paula Barton, 60, this summer dealt with two corns  calluses witha hard core  on the toe second in from the pinky toe on her rightfoot.
The Longmont resident tried home remedies when walking in sneakerson her treadmill made her foot sore. One over-the-counter packetincluded a salicylic acid treatment to soften the corn under astick-on protection pad.
Generally, after a week or two, it would dissolve the corn, and Iwould go on my merry way, she said. But this time, my homeremedies werent working.
In late May, she called Smith. He eventually ordered X-rays anddetermined that two bony spurs had caused the corns.
One Friday in August, Barton underwent a 15-minute, outpatientprocedure with local anesthesia. Smith made one tiny incision onthe top of her sore toe to remove both spurs on the toes rightside, she said. Then he sent her home.
By Tuesday, I was back on my treadmill, Barton said. It wasfixed in no time.
To avoid shoe-related problems, Smith recommended taking pressureoff the feet by matching the toe box to the shape of the foot andwearing reasonable heels.
You may not be able to get away with wearing stilettos, Smithsaid. But you could wear a heel, as long as its no higher than 2inches.
This fall, the American Podiatric Medical Association will launchanother campaign to educate the public on potential foot-relatedconditions from corns to sores to bunions, a deformity of the bigtoe joint.
But the main message comes down to not tolerating foot pain, saidDr. Marlene Reid, a Naperville, Ill., podiatrist and spokeswomanfor the Bethesda, Md.-based APMA.
A recent APMA survey revealed that 53 percent of Americans willsuffer from some type of severe foot pain in their life, she said.People in some communities will say, Oh, my dogs are barking.But thats not normal.
Pam Mellskog can be reached at 303-684-5224 orpmellskog@times-call.com. More Health