[gardener]

You're too young for this, Jean-Paul, but my wife's trainer, in her early 40s, has the same problem--and I've got a tale,too. For several years I have had intermittent foot pain. It's not only a physical problem but also a marital one, as my Europe-born wife is a demonic walker and we're
contemplating a couple of big trips in the next several months. Anyway,
at her behest, two months ago I finally went to a podiatrist highly recommended by friends. He put me in orthotics and the relief was
stupendous.

Then came last weekend. Friday we went to Philadelphia for a couple of days, starting with a performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra of Mahler's 8th Symphony in E flat, the socalled symphony of a thousand,
performed by only 500, but absolutely glorious. We got the last two tickets, one in box 13 the other in box 25. (I had 25 which turned out to be so close to the stage that I couid almost touch the front double bass.
Glorious! But I couldn't wear sneakers, so I wore leather shoes. The Kimmel Center was 6 blocks from our hotel. Halfway there, I began
having dreadful heel pain. Next morning, I was fine. We walked about 20 blocks, then in mid-afternoon took the train to the suburban lot where we'd left the car, about 1/8 miles from the station. The pain returned. I could only hobble, and my body was so out of kilter that
severe hio pain followed. My heels were hot and inflamed.

Monday it was back to the podiatrist, to get a second opinion about my self-diagnosis of plantar faschiitis. Symptoms? Pain on first walking in the morning, then okay, but eventually more pain. Inflammation. Swelling. Heat.

The doctor agreed, except that my case was atypical. The pain was centered more in the back of the arch than at the back of the heel.

Treatment? 5x daily, roll arch of foot over a frozen bottle of water.
Also 3x daily,rub in a menthol and holly (ILEX) salve called Biofreeze.
For a couple of weeks, use 3x daily prescription dose ibuprofen, 600 mg. And deep tissue massage of feet and lower legs.

I had an hour session yesterday with the masseuse I sometimes use.
It was very, very, very painful, the worst trigger point experiences yet.
But it helped a lot and I'm going back. My tormentor said my feet were sending me a message and that most of the painful spots were on the
kidney meridian. Hmm. I'm not partial to talk of chi and meridians, but she did me a lot of good.

Oh yes, I took the leather shoes with me to the doctor. They were
SAS shoes and I thought really good ones, but he crushed them around in his hand and said they offered no more foot support than a pair of socks or some old house shoes. He speculated that walking only 3 or 4 blocks in them on pavement did the damage, causing some immediate discomfort and then the next day's really miserable heel pain.

There's another lesson here. For several years I'v just put up with the pain from time to time. For the past year, I stubbornly resisted my wife's entreaties to get medical help for my feet. Doctors are for really serious matters like lung cancer, right? But about feet, we should be macho and stoic, grin and bear it with as little complain as we can manage.

I guess for years, guys put up with problems they didn't want to take to a doctor. Loss of libido, say. Or... Now we've got ads touting Viagra,
Cialis, and Levitra every 8 minutes on TV channel after channel.

Problems of the groin aren't exactly trivial, but foot problems are no laughing matter, either.

When foot pain first presents itself, not years later, it's time to get some professional advice and treatment.