When it comes to foot health, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, or at least temporarily out of order. This came to my attention recently when I suffered a broken toe – the second to smallest one on my left foot. How much of a problem could that really be? Such a small digit! Well, as it turns out, it makes it rather painful to get around, and there isn’t really anything to be done for it except wait for it to heal.
Worst of all is the fact that you don’t get any sympathy from anyone – nobody knows unless you tell them, and if you do that they make fun of you for having such a minor breakage. Even my mother was dismissive about it, saying I had a ‘man fracture’. Thanks heaps for that, Mum! If you’ve ever broken a toe, you’ll relate to this position of people not getting how painful it is.
To add insult to injury, it became clear over the same week that I’d acquired a nail fungus on my other foot. It must have been building up there for a while; I guess the toe situation had me paying more attention to my feet than usual. Anyway, that left me with the task of finding a podiatrist, Cheltenham buses could drop me off at, without me having to hobble too far down the high street. Good times.
I got this high-tech nail fungus treatment – PACT photodynamic therapy, I think it was called. I might have to have another session; we’ll see when the nail has grown out a bit more. While I was there, the podiatrist gave me some tips on dealing with the broken toe, and managed to do so without laughing at me – that was nice. I repeat: it’s not a laughing matter.
Going to the podiatry clinic made me aware of the range of foot conditions that are out there, and the fact that there are effective treatments for most of them. Even better, there are people who are qualified to help without being grossed out or thinking it’s hilarious.