Having Flat Feet Sucks

viet tran
Apr 7, 2017
3 min read

My experience started with when I was little, when you’re young your bones are still soft and haven’t fully harden. So depending what you wear and what you do, it will shape your bone structure. Back to my story, when I was little, I used to wear a lot of flat shoes such as sandals, vans, Nikes, etc. As I knew up, around when I was about 8 years old, I told my dad that my feet were hurting because I was standing for a long period of time. So he took my sister and I to the foot doctor to get my feet examined, the doctor notice that the arches of my feet weren’t so high. He gave me some supports to in our shoes as long term treatment, the doctor wanted to be safe so he gave my sister some too. However, as I got older I disobeyed the doctor and thought my feet were fine, so I stopped having the supports in my shoes. As time went on, I noticed my feet hurting when I ran or stood for a long period of time until one day my cousin saw that feet were totally flat when I walked. Notifying my mom, she took me to the doctors again, thank goodness it wasn’t the same one, to get my feet examined once more. The doctor said if I didn’t get my feet treated, then I would start walking funny in future and that my feet will slowly turn inward. Since I stopped wearing supports, he said the only option was surgery. He described the surgery, he said he was going to cut or slice my ankle bone and stick a bone wedge where the slice was. He said that the bone will grow around it and I would automatically have natural looking arches. This was my surgery and I didn’t know what to expect, my mom and me went to the hospital on the chosen day. Before I knew it the surgery was over, and I had to spend the next few months doing my own rehab. Depending on how badly I wanted to walk again depended on my recovery rate. Now my feet don’t hurt anymore and I hate clutches ( never walk with clutches on a UH campus tour).

Flat feet otherwise known as fallen arches is when a person's feet is flat to the ground, and their shoes might wear down. However there aren't really symptoms for fallen arches, but over time people with fallen feet will experience pain. Also when walking, the person will notice that they are walking unevenly, this causes pain to their hip, knee, and made cause pain in the person's lower back. Causes of flat feet are usually inherited ( passed down from family member to family member), weak arches, injury, or tarsal coalition( bones were fused in a unusual way, during childhood). Flat feet can also happen to people who are over weight and depending on age, this is because the weakening or damaging of the posterior tibial tendon can happen. Usually when people are younger and they experience flat feet would be given a brace or supports to keep their arches up. However if over time the condition does it get worst then it would result in having surgery done on their feet. Plus there are different exercises that can be done to treat or prevent flat feet.