Sole to soul recovery

For anyone who has ever suffered with their feet, you will know how much of an effect that can have on your quality of life. Even the apparently simple things can cause incredible distress, pain, inconvenience, and threaten overall health & wellbeing. For instance, if you can’t manage to cut your own toenails (and you have no-one to assist you), eventually the nails will make footwear feel very uncomfortable and they could dig into your flesh creating a portal of entry for infection – not nice!

So if that’s the possible consequences of a simple problem, imagine what the consequences are for more complex foot issues. Long-term foot pain and suffering does us no favours at all. It will demoralise, drag us down and destroy us from the feet upwards. However, what appears to be a complex foot issue to the public, or even other health care professionals, is often quickly and easily resolved by good Podiatrists (Foot Specialists) in the same way that apparently complex teeth problems are easily resolved by good Dentists (Tooth Specialists).

An example of such would be a chronic ingrowing toenail that has been present for many months and treated repeatedly with painfully-attempted self-care and multiple courses of prescribed antibiotics. Unbelievably in this day and age of antibiotic guardianship, this still happens even in children, and it’s just so unnecessary. Many Podiatrists do a simple operation under local anaesthetic which permanently cures the problem in less than 30 minutes. The delight and joy on a patient’s face after suffering for so long for no good reason is an absolute pleasure to behold. It lifts their soul and mine, and the same happens every single clinic day for all sorts of acute and chronic foot problems.

If you’ve ever had a painful corn, you will understand the immediate relief removal of that can bring. Even better is that some Podiatrists will cure the corn permanently for you so you never have to suffer again. The same goes for verrucae, heel pain (also known as plantar fasciitis), Achilles tendinitis, Morton’s neuroma, diabetic foot ulcers, fungal nail & skin infections. All of them can be resolved with the right approach from the right Podiatrist.

But sometimes, a patient presents with an apparently complex problem to them and is indeed complex to the Podiatrist. This is where we have to become detectives to get to the bottom of the issues. That can only be achieved through spending time with the patient, listening to their stories (of their life and the presenting condition), as well as understanding their expectations and hopes for a better tomorrow for themselves. Due to the biopsychosocial aspects of pain, this can be very revealing about what help is required, and it isn’t always just foot treatments that are needed. This is when good, experienced, caring Podiatrists are worth their weight in gold. They really can transform a patient even after just one appointment. And here is one review from this week left for me on Facebook which makes me feel so proud and humble about the difference I make to people in this way:

“Thank you so much, actually I can’t thank you enough. I’m now on the road to recovery from my sole to soul xx”

Jonathan Small, Lead Podiatrist & Business Mentor

Health First Foot & Gait Clinic, Southam, CV47 1PH

01926 811272

CLICK HERE TO CONTACT US

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