My New Best Friend

I may very well have a new best friend– Dr Scholls Massaging Gel Sport Insert.

  
I’ve been having some ankle trouble the past few months.  I really noticed it this spring as I started walking more at lunchtime. And it has gotten worse with drum corps.  This past weekend it was to the point where I was having trouble walking and was in continual pain. 

I blame this on my one flat foot. 

When I was born, I had flat feet. So may parents opted for correctional shoes– which sort of worked. I now have one decently formed arch on my right foot, but my left is nearly flat. This makes shoe shopping really fun as I have a full size difference in my feet. 

It also adds stress to my hips, knees, ankles etc when doing anything athletic. 

Well, I guess the difference finally caught up to me and my left ankle and tendons became overly stressed. Thus causing my ankle to seize up a bit and really hurt. Like “stabby” pain. 

Not fun while marching. 

Well, the other day I was at Target looking for my probiotics when I walked past the Dr Scholls display.  “Meh,” I thought. “Why not try these sports ones?  They look to have good arch support.”

This particular insert has heel cushion and firm arch support and then ends right about at the ball of the foot – so it’s reall a partial insert. And I added just the left one on top of my shoe’s already existing support, figuring I need to balance this side out. 

And I gotta say– boy did it help last night at rehearsal!  My ankle pain dropped about 80% and I didn’t experience any moments where it seized up.  I don’t think I can adequately describe the awesomeness of that!

I went from wincing with every step and wondering if my ankle was going to give out, to being able to concentrate on marching accurately. 

Such a relief!

Now, I’m not counting my chickens yet, as that was only one rehearsal, but I am optimistic that I may have come up with a workable solution.