Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Flatfoot II

Hmmm ... I got the full treatment today, lasers shot into the tendon, manipulation that at times felt like a knife stuck into the heel, and the ever-fun electric shock therapy to draw blood to the Achilles tendon. Of course, when your physio looks like mine does, a little pain is rather forgiveable :-)

After that, I was evaluated by an Orthotics specialist using some pretty fancy computerized tooling. My step was analyzed on both sides with the pressure exerted on my feet plotted in 3D. This is very cool technology, very appealing for a Nerd like me.

And the bottom line was that a score of 0/5 suggests perfect mechanics, while 5/5 suggests disaster. My left foot scored 4/5 and my right scored 5/5. Dang, how'd I miss out on a perfect score?

More interesting is that each side has different problems. On the left, I slam my heel down with 97% of my body weight, causing extreme stress on the tendon. Hence, the tendinitis on that foot. On the other, I slam 95% of my weight onto the ball of the foot just behind the big toe ... and this is definitely wrong ...

Apparently, my ankles are fairly rigid, which causes a rather robotic gait as well ... contributing to the problem. *sigh* ... looks like I will be wearing rather uncomfortable shoes for a while ...

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