All, I had a call from a guy from Denmark yesterday who needs some help with foot orthoses. Does anyone know of a good biomechanics podiatrist in Denmark, Sweden or Germany to save this guy flying to the UK and then spending 4 hours on a train, just to reach me down in Plymouth?
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He sent me an e-mail today which I've copied below along with some photo's of his feet, as you will see the devices he has are a little "primitive".
Any help you can offer will be much appreciated.
I am 38 years old from Copenhagen, Denmark.
As I told you I think I have a cavus foot. Please see attached pictures. I am 186 cm tall and my weight is 84 kg
Through my life I never really experienced problems with my feet. 18 years ago I had knee surgery in my right leg and I developed a bit of drop foot and numbness on the lateral side from the knee down. It improved over time and never bothered me much. Over the last 10 years or so I have been doing quite a bit of running (20km /pr. week) in neutral running shoes with no foot problems.
In 2007/2008 I lived in Bangkok and had an intense flirt with salsa dancing there. Unfortunately a dance teacher persuaded me to get a pair of thin leather jazz dance shoes. Super contact with the floor but zero cushioning. I practiced for hours on hard surfaces and after a while I was limping out of bed in the morning. I told myself it would pass and continued dancing the nights away. One morning in april 2008 after an intense night of dancing I woke up with the ball of my right foot severely inflamated. Especially the joint behind the big toe was seriously swallen. This happened after 4-5 months of intense dancing.
I stayed a lot in bed the first week expecting this to heal quickly but I would soon learn otherwise. It took a couple of months before the inflamation was reasonably under control. The joint behind the big toe continued to be dropped in a much more prominent way than before.
Salsa crazy as I was (without even being able to walk normally) I tried to get get back in to dancing using shoes with more cushioning, but it never worked. I had a pair of orthotics made in Thailand. They had massive support of the arch and gave much needed relief to the joint behind the big toe, but also made me supinate even more.
In december 2008 I moved back to Denmark and here I have seen various types of doctors and therapists. All together I have had 3 orthotics made.
Based on design advice from a doctor I tentatively had a pair of orthotics made, that I think are on the right track (se attached fotos of the right one). They are made of rubber foam designed with a vedge along the lateral side of the foot including a lift under the 2-5th metatasal. There is also a bit of arch support.
I purchased a pair of MBT shoes as well. They do take some of the pressure of the forefoot and help me to some degree.
I am not sure how much to write about my symptoms:
Right foot:
Heal pointing inward. I think my current orthotics correct this to a certain degree and do feel some tenderness on the arch and medial side of the heel…. like it is being stretched.
General discomfort and tenderness under the metatarsals. The first is the worst.
A bit of af strain on the lateral side of my ankle (probably from supination)
An osteopath I just started seing has measured that I put 10 kg less weigth on my right leg and also that my right seems slightly shorter. He is trying to adjust this a bit through working on my bag and pelvis
Left foot
On my left foot I have a tendency for hammertoes to form on my second and third toe.
When I read through websites like "Podiatry Arena" I very clearly sense there are some more capable and dedicated profesionals out there than what I have seen in Denmark. I need to consult with 1 or 2 of those and feel sure that I give my foot the best possible treatment.
Would be really great if you could refer me to some specialists in your network from a place reasonably close to me. Otherwise I am willing to travel to Plymouth if I feel that is necessary.
Being uninformed I hunger for knowledge on this issue and browse the web for hours looking for information. Recently found a pretty good article with some real information I could understand here:
http://www.performancezone1.com/subtle_cavus_foot.pdf
If you have a link to a couple of good articles or can recommend a really good book to a layman like me I would be very interested.
This became a long text. Hope its not too bad :).....Really looking forward to hearing from you and thank you for listening!
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