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Lucy's Story (24a)
Posted by Lucy on August 28, 2003, 2:00:41

Cont. ... Sorry everyone! I must have inadvertantly hit the 'Post' half-way through Instalment 24, so let's just carry it on as Instalment 24a:
4. In bare feet, lean slightly forwards, bracing your hands against a wall, post, mantlepiece etc. Place the left foot forwards with the knee bent, and place the other foot slightly behind you with the knee straight, and lowering that heel to the ground (or as near as you can get!) with your weight on it. Then flexing the front knee further forward, allow your body-weight to stretch to calf/tendon of the rear leg. Then change legs and repeat, and so on, gradually moving the rear foot further back from the wall or post, increasing the stretch on the tendon. Do this slowly and steadily. Do not bounce your body-weight up down as you stretch the tendon as this could damage or tear the tendon in the process. Do this session (of at least ten minutes) at least once, but preferably several times a day.

5. When standing, if you find it impossible or extremely painful to lower your own heels down into the horizontal position to stand flat on the floor, put on the very LOWEST heels you can tolerate, and do the daily exercises in those.

6. Also, if you cannot walk at all without heels, put on the lowest you can tolerate, and not only use them for the exercise in item 5, but also wear them all the time, not going any higher unless having to wear higher heels for the odd special occasion.

7. In week 2, choose (or buy) heels ideally 1/4", but no more than 1/2" lower and repeat the exercises and daily living in those heels. Then, when you can stand it (usually between a week and a month), go down yet again in heel-height by a similar amount, and so on until you CAN again stand and walk barefooted on flat floors.

8. If, having 'gone completely flat', you feel that it is still a strain, optionally you can consolidate the stretching by temporarily going into "negative heels". These are special flat shoes where the your heels can sink further into the sole of the shoe than your toes - ie the reverse of high heels! This should not be overdone, but can help with just that last bit of tendon-stretching.

9. When you can tolerate walking barefoot or in flat shoes around the house again without any great discomfort (this took me about four months, but took Madeline over twice as long), start going for outside walks in flat shoes as frequently as possible, gradually increasing the walk from say, one to five or more miles. Then join an aerobic class and REALLY exercise those feet!

10. Still in flat shoes, start walking UP hilly streets, but ensuring that the back of each shoe returns flat-down on to the pavement with every stride. Or, in bare feet and the seaside, run UP the sides of sand-dunes with your whole foot contacting the slope. Those are very beneficial exercises.

11. To further consolidate having returned to again being able to "Go flat", stand with your toes on a firm step (the bottom tread on your staircase is as good as anything) and the backs of your heels in mid-air. With your hands holding-on to anything suitable, smoothly lower your feet from tip-toe to having your own heels lower than the stair you are standing on. Again do this for ten minutes several times a day, each week trying to go lower below step-level.

12. With bare legs and feet, do plenty of early morning exercises which benefit the problem: Standing with both feet together and flat on the ground, and with straight knees, bend over and touch your toes ten or twently times. Then, sitting or lying down, do plenty of ankle-flexing exercises, depressing each foot downwards as far as it will go, and then (very importantly) upwards as far as it can go. Do this thirty or forty times!

13. Another danger if becoming 'permanently high-heeled' is that your toes can become permanently stuck up at right-angles to your foot. Mummy's old Aunt Edna had this problem having worn high heels throughout her entire business career working in accounts for Vavasseur's, a silk firm in Cheapside near the St. Paul's area of London from about 1915 to the mid 1950s. The television newsreader Kenneth Kendell (now retired) was a descendant of the management. Although thick (before stilettos came in), great-aunt Edna's heels were always surprisingly high for the times (at least 4") because she was tiny (only about 4' 10") and wanted all the extra height that she could get. As she approached retirement, she succeeeded in gradually 'coming down' flat, but her toes stayed sticking up towards the ceiling and then became stuck that way with arthritis. She had the misfortune of ending up walking around in ugly surgical boots, especially-made with bulging toe-caps to accommodate her vertical toes for years, right up to her death aged 96. This can be avoided by plenty of flattie or barefoot walking each day, and when at rest sitting down or in bed, exercising the toes by curling them under the foot and plenty of general wiggling.

14. Remember, warm-up and soften the tissues with heat-treatment (and maybe a massage) before doing any of these activities, and whilst doing them keep your legs and feet warm with tracksuits, socks etc. Drink plenty of water during and after all exercises.

15. After reversing the calf, tendon and toe problems, think very carefully about how great a portion (if any!) of each day you dare risk in high heels, especially if they are ultra-high. Perhaps it varies from person to person. Some people seem to have much more supple and rubbery bodies than others. In my case, having successfully followed those guidelines and curing my comparatively mild problem, I have found ever since that as long as, on average, I spend AT LEAST 30% (but preferable 40% to 50%) barefoot or in flatties each day, and I do my exercises each day, then the problem does not seem to recur.

There! that, I think, covers all the main points. However, on a personal note can I say to Cheryl how much I hope these tips and experiences help her, and Cheryl in the meantime, to help prevent you from sinking into the mud, can I suggest that boots with high WEDGES would present a much bigger and more coninuous sole-area to the mud than any heeled boot.

To the ladies in general, of course if you prefer to choose to be a permanently high-heeled lady, simply ignore all the above tips and carry on wearing ultra-high heels morning, noon and night. However, if your fear a predicament like Cheryls, or wish to retain the daily THRILL of going from utterly flat up to stepping into 5" heels or therabouts (my main reason for looking after my tendons), or simply feel that you wish to retain the full use of your un-heeled feet as nature intended you to do, then good luck in keeping your high-and-low options fully open as girls like me and Laurie do.

And finally, to conclude this instalment, note that Firefox, as a prelude to his own wonderful collection of high heels, includes a picture of a pair of flatties as "The single most important pair of shoes in everyone's collection!".

Love, Lucy