I am a practical person; therefore as I take baby steps along my unshodden path it made sense to me to go and call in on a Chiropodist en-route.
I did consider walking into his ‘surgery’ barefooted but it seemed a little bit ‘forward’, a bit like taking the engine to the mechanic rather than letting him see the whole car. So I decided against it – I would tread lightly and just bring it up in conversation. I was intrigued to get a ‘professional’ view on my quest, and as a professional presumably he would say ‘don’t do it .....’
To the contrary. But first, I have to say what a ridiculously nice guy he is. I use the word ‘ridiculous’ in the ‘incredible’ sense of the word; you could tell he didn’t even have to try to be nice, he just was. A man obviously happy with himself, his life and his work. A good start ...
“Nothing to worry about at all,” he assured me. “Far too much fuss made about them these days. We all have memories of feeling like the great unwashed if we had a verruca in school – banned from the swimming pool or changing rooms – silly,” he tuts. “It would clear up on it’s own,” he continues, “clever thing the verruca virus, it can disguise itself and creep into your cells without being detected. Then one day out of the blue the cells will rumble it; they’ll spot it as an imposter and it’s ‘evicted’. That’s the end of it, it can’t survive once it’s been revealed as a baddie, so it just buggers off.”
How cool; what a great story and one I would have really appreciated hearing as I sat in the balcony feeling like an outcast 30 years ago watching my fellow classmates enjoy their swimming lesson.
‘OK,’ I thought, ‘so he’s not fazed by verrucas – now must be a good time to throw down the gauntlet or sock even ...’ and I told him about my barefoot adventure.
He didn’t even look up from filing my toenails.
“We are meant to be unshodden,” he shrugged, “just not on tarmac, pavements and concrete. That’s what makes it unnatural today. We are supposed to be unshodden but on grass, mud and peat – perfect for your job!”
There was a very real risk of me being rendered speechless at this stage; luckily he continued ... “People blame their shoes for all sorts of problems with their feet but unless the shoe is a poor fit, mostly they are problems that would occur even if they didn’t wear shoes, most problems like bunions are genetic and down to the make-up of your foot. You’ve got great feet,” he compliments. “Bio-dynamically they’re strong and good. You’ll have no problems being barefoot.”
‘Oh’
“Just don’t visit any Breaker’s yards,” he adds wisely. I really like this guy.
He tells me that a little bit of banana skin put over the verruca (inside of banana skin to skin on foot) and held in place with a piece of duct tape often gets rid of verrucas too. I reciprocate by telling him that I’ve read that the Romans used to beat the bottoms of their feet with bunches of stingy nettles to harden the skin.
“Really? Strange ones the Romans,” he replies, “Can’t see how that would work – are you sure it wasn’t just a personal thing?” I assure him I wasn’t around then, so couldn’t vouch for it personally.
“This is interesting,” he continues excitedly, “you are making me recall stuff I learnt as a student now; the skin is 3 or four times thicker on the soles of our feet anyway and it is possible to callous it by exposing it and walking barefoot on different surfaces . On a healthy foot the pressure will be evenly distributed which will mean the skin will thicken uniformly. Problems occur when ill-fitting footwear means you get a concentrated pressure point and hard skin forms as a corn. You shouldn’t have any problem with your feet at all,” he reiterates.
I tell him about running on the treadmill barefoot and using 4% less oxygen, he is impressed by my intention of running a barefoot 10K in September.
“Let me know how you get on? he asks, “oh, and if the nettles work,” he adds.
I had already devised a Hard Sole Award for people who hampered my unshodden journey in some way but I hadn’t expected to need another Award system for ‘outstanding encouragers’ along the way. David Richards, chiropodist extraordinaire of Abergavenny (Tel: 01873 853235), Congratulations, you are the first recipient of my Heart & Sole Award.
Lynne Allbutt
