Guess what helped my back?? :)

Some of you might remember that I had to go to a back specialist for bulging discs a few weeks ago and was sent to PT. Well, PT was working...a little. But it was still sore. This week, all of a sudden it started to feel a lot better! As in, it barely bothers me at all now and has improved every day! I had my PT appointment yesterday and I mentioned it to my therapist that all of a sudden it's been approving. He looked at my feet and commented "you got new shoes".

I had been wearing the same pair of Nike's almost every day for over 2 years. I still thought they were in good shape (although, VERY dirty) because there weren't any holes or tears in them but DH got a bonus this week and almost had to force me to get a pair of new shoes, so I splurged and got ones with extra arch support. WOW! I never realized what a difference it made! The therapist had me take off my shoe and sock and stand and said I am basically flat footed (arch is maybe a centimeter off the ground...I have hobbit feet!) and I need the arch support to keep my back in alignment.

Now, these are the same shoes I wore to every doctor appointment I have had so why didn't anyone else want to look at my feet?? I don't know if it had anything to do with the problem, but new shoes sure is helping with the recovery!

I just thought that was interesting and something for other people to know.

Physical therapist are trained to look at things a little differently - that's why he noticed.

Glad the shoes have helped. It seems such a simple thing to do to get some improvement that most of us wouldn't think of it.

very glad to hear that something had helped.

Originally Posted by calico2222

Some of you might remember that I had to go to a back specialist for bulging discs a few weeks ago and was sent to PT. Well, PT was working...a little. But it was still sore. This week, all of a sudden it started to feel a lot better! As in, it barely bothers me at all now and has improved every day! I had my PT appointment yesterday and I mentioned it to my therapist that all of a sudden it's been approving. He looked at my feet and commented "you got new shoes".

I had been wearing the same pair of Nike's almost every day for over 2 years. I still thought they were in good shape (although, VERY dirty) because there weren't any holes or tears in them but DH got a bonus this week and almost had to force me to get a pair of new shoes, so I splurged and got ones with extra arch support. WOW! I never realized what a difference it made! The therapist had me take off my shoe and sock and stand and said I am basically flat footed (arch is maybe a centimeter off the ground...I have hobbit feet!) and I need the arch support to keep my back in alignment.

Now, these are the same shoes I wore to every doctor appointment I have had so why didn't anyone else want to look at my feet?? I don't know if it had anything to do with the problem, but new shoes sure is helping with the recovery!

I just thought that was interesting and something for other people to know.

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A few years ago , I had a sore back for 5 months It was my winter boots.

That's great to hear!

I had the same thing a while back. I wore the same shoes regularly, and after walking around for a while, my back would really start aching. I got new shoes, and all of a sudden I could walk for ages with no problems You forget how important your feet are!

That's great news! I am so glad you are feeling less pain. I also have very flat feet (flatter than yours, I have 0cm of arch, my entire foot sinks to the ground due to excessive ligament elasticity for genetic reasons) and it can be so hard to find comfortable footwear, too flat and it puts every muscle from the foot upwards under strain, too heeled and I'm going to do mischief to my knees and hips.

As strangewings said there is no way your doctor would notice that, they are not specialised in that sort of thing - but they did their job by referring you to specialists who do know about all that stuff

Originally Posted by sarahp

That's great to hear!

I had the same thing a while back. I wore the same shoes regularly, and after walking around for a while, my back would really start aching. I got new shoes, and all of a sudden I could walk for ages with no problems

You forget how important your feet are!

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That's exactly how I feel! I feel like I could walk a marathon right now (notice I said "walk", not "run"! ) I had no idea what a difference one little change could make. So...$50.00 for a pair of shoes or $1000's for doctor's visits and PT....hmmm. Granted, my back still bothers me when I sit for long periods of time without getting up and moving so I'll stay with PT for the next few weeks as planned, but I'll take any improvement I can get.

That reminds me... I need new shoes. The soles of my shoes are almost completely worn out.
I just have to convince myself to go shopping (I hate shopping!!)

Thanks for sharing your tip!!

The part time job I have its on your feet for the entire 6 hours. Not lots of standing in one place either. Even wearing fairly new walking shoes my feet still are a bit sore so you gave me the idea to look at the crocs website. I see many many nurses wearing them so they must work ok. Today I ordered the "Mario Batali" bistro crocs (a pumpkiny orange color). I wore my mary jane crocs one day and my feet felt ok but the ones I ordered are designed for the food industry. Hopefully I'll have them in a few days.

I had gotten an extra pair of running shoes with good arch support, but still mostly used the first pair for running. I decided to wear the second pair to work where a can be on my feet for the greater part of a 12-hour shift. Amazing the difference it made both in how my feet feel and how the rest of my body feels at the end of the shift.

Thats great that you are feeling better! What a great idea too, I would have never given my shoes a 2nd though on why my back hurts!

Yep, our feet do a lot for us.

You should get a prescription for orthotics. They make such a huge difference.

I only have one for my left foot, but I need to get one for my right foot too. Prior to having the left foot orthotic I couldn't walk very much or for very long before my foot started to really ache. Now it doesn't bother me at all for the most part.

They are covered by most insurance companies. I only had to pay $35 for mine after insurance paid their portion.

I actually just changed my orthotic into a new pair of track shoes today too. My old track shoes are about 2 years old, maybe more. And they're all stretched out and not giving me much support anymore, plus something inside is rubbing on my big toe and it's uncomfortable.

I suspect changing my shoes will also help my back too. Here's hoping

Originally Posted by Natalie_ca

Yep, our feet do a lot for us.

You should get a prescription for orthotics. They make such a huge difference.

I only have one for my left foot, but I need to get one for my right foot too. Prior to having the left foot orthotic I couldn't walk very much or for very long before my foot started to really ache. Now it doesn't bother me at all for the most part.

They are covered by most insurance companies. I only had to pay $35 for mine after insurance paid their portion.

I actually just changed my orthotic into a new pair of track shoes today too. My old track shoes are about 2 years old, maybe more. And they're all stretched out and not giving me much support anymore, plus something inside is rubbing on my big toe and it's uncomfortable.

I suspect changing my shoes will also help my back too. Here's hoping

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Now, is that something that a doctor has to order, or is that something I can bring up to my therapist? Are they inserts you can change from one pair of shoes to another or actually special shoes?

Originally Posted by calico2222

Now, is that something that a doctor has to order, or is that something I can bring up to my therapist? Are they inserts you can change from one pair of shoes to another or actually special shoes?

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I don't know about there, but here you need a prescription for them, either from your doctor or as I found out a couple weeks ago, a chiropractor, or at least my chiropractor takes the mould and sends it out for the orthotic to be made. Not sure if a physiotherapist can authorize them for you or not.

Once you get a prescription, you go to an orthotics place where they assess your foot and make a mould of your foot. It's like getting a cast. They wrap your foot and then they apply plaster of paris to it. Once it's hardened they remove it. My appointment for mine took about 1 hour.

Then you go back a few weeks later to have him fit it to the inside of your shoe. For the most part they can be changed from shoe to shoe, but it does depend on the cut of the shoe. My orthotic won't fit into one pair or track shoes that I have because the depth of the shoe is not very deep so when I put the orthotic in, my foot barely fits inside the shoe. However, I had a different pair of track shoes that I haven't worn and the orthotic fits well in it because it's a deeper shoe like the ones I was wearing.

Of course if you want to wear high heels (not recommended), you will need to have a specially made orthotic for that style of shoe because they're rigid and don't bend.

It doesn't take long to get used to them. It's a gradual process. You wear it for an hour and then remove it. Do that a couple times a day for a few days, then wear it for a couple of hours once or twice a day for a couple of days, gradually increasing the time. It takes about 2 or 3 weeks to work your way up to wearing them all day. If you don't work your way up, your feet will ache because it's a shock to the foot and the foot has to adjust.

Also, when you have orthotics you should be wearing your shoes at home too, and not going barefoot or wearing slippers unless you put the orthotic into the slippers. No point in having an orthotic if you aren't going to wear it when you are walking around, even at home.

Good shoes do help. When I was working at Wal-Mart and on my feet all day long, having the proper shoes to wear did make a difference. My back still hurt like b/c of my condition (and also due to having one leg shorter than the other), but it wasn't quite as painful with decent shoes.

I'm glad to hear that you're doing better, and I hope that wearing bad shoes is all that's wrong!

Glad you found out and that is your back is better!