March 01st, 2018

This is half of a set of my favourite non-sandal shoes.  Believe it or not, there are days here when I do not wear sandals.  When I'm hiking, for example, I generally wear sneakers which this shoe isn't exactly, but sort of.  Or on a day that is a tad coolish, I might prefer to wear a closed toe shoe,  which this is for sure.  For a dressy occasion I would wear a dressier shoe, which this is absolutely not.

​I like these shoes.  I wear them often.  they are navy blue which goes with almost everything I own.  It has a nice lean shape and doesn't make my foot look wide.  My foot is not wide, but it is almost completely flat so some shoes shapes seem to make my feet look wide.   The best part?  This shoe is made out of some waterproof material so I can (and do!) wear them to the beach.   And they are comfortable.  They look good with shorts, with capri's and even jeans. An excellent shoe choice.  Most of the time.

​This week has been a wee bit coolish in the morning and that is when I make my clothing and shoe choices.  Generally once I'm dressed for the day, that's it. I do not change again.  And that is exactly what happened this week.  Monday, I had a number of errands.  I walked to the library, to the post office and to the beach.   I wore these shoes. And all was well.

​Tuesday, I did a lot of things at home and then set out to run other errands.  I was gone for a several hours.  While I wore different clothes, I wore the same shoes.  Finally, as I was heading home, packages in hand, and purse over shoulder I noticed that my right foot was hurting.  I decided to ignore it.  As I walked it began to hurt more.  I decided to ignore it harder.  The left foot began to join in. I choose to try to ignore it as well. Usually the ignore thing works.  I'm not the princess from the story of "The Princess and the Pea" after all!  I'm a proud descendant of generation upon generation of tough, sturdy peasants!

  The right foot began to really become in-ignorable. I sat on a bench about a half mile from home, removed the right shoe and sonofagun there it was, a blister.  Not just a regular blister mind you but a popped blister that was starting to bleed. Dang.​

​It wasn't  even on the heel of my foot, which is a normal blister spot but on the side by the baby toe .How weird is that? Hmm.  Well I still had to get home so I put the shoe back on and limped awkwardly for about a half a block.  I gritted my teeth, determined to just deal with it but after a very short time I stopped and leaning up against the wall of the post office, removed the right  shoe again.   This foot absolutely was way worse than the left. I wrapped a tissue from my purse around the side of my foot and delicately put the shoe back on.

​I managed to get another half a block.  Now the bottom of my foot was yelling at me too.  I leaned up against a big tree in front of the Catholic church and removed the shoe again.  The tissue was wet with blister goo and a little blood and was starting to disintegrate already. Yuck.  I wadded it up and shoved it in my pocket.  I ran my thumb over the bottom of my foot and yup, several more blisters.  Dang again.  Ok no shoe.

​I finished my walk home with my right shoe in my hand, limping off both feet trying desperately to  levitate, which didn't work by the way.   Once home, I soaked my poor tortured feet,  plied them with antibiotic ointment and bandages, put on socks and sneakers and tried to stay off them as much as possible.  Wednesday, I changed my original plans (which involved a lot of walking) and again, babying the footsies,  did housey stuff instead.  While they are not 100%, both feet are much better today and are healing nicely.

​I have no idea what happened.  How did a shoe that I wear often and has never been a problem, suddenly become a problem? My sister suggests that perhaps some sand from the beach walk was slowly irritating my feet as walked.  So the same way that sand over many years can wear done a rock was much more quickly wearing out the dermis of my feet. Interesting. Plausible. And in fact, it seems like the most reasonable explanation.

​Another lesson learned!  Be far more diligent about removing the beach from my shoes from this point forward.  Maybe I really am the princess from" The Princess and the Pea."  Huh!  Who knew?
​