Sarita's Story
i have club feetI am now 34 years old and was born with two club feet in 1975. The right foot was minor, and the left was quite severe. As a result now after the Ponseti method, I am fortunate to be pain free--however the left foot is 2 sizes smaller and 1 inch shorter than the right, and my left calf is quite thin. The other issue is that I can't flex my left foot, so I am left with a drop foot walking a bit like a horse with my toe first instead of my heel.
I have been thinking about my relationship with club foot alot lately and recently started a blog www.footclubbed.com. It has definitely been challenging for me for so much of my life, and now I am finally ready to talk about it honestly, and possibly provide a resource for people struggling with it.
The way I describe my story now is so different from how I would have described it in my teens. In my teens, my story would have focused around shame, not feeling pretty, and around how best I could hide my condition. People often asked me what was wrong with my leg, and I would lie and say I got hurt, sprained an ankle. I would never wear open toed shoes even on the hottest of days in fear that someone would notice the 2 shoe sizes of disparity between my feet, and the strange curling of the toes on my left foot.
But now at 34, I can safely say that I am no longer embarrassed about it. Yes, it does stop me from doing or buying certain things--but I am finally at peace with it. I also notice that I push myself to my limits with the condition. I do Yoga regularly, and I did a challenging nine hour volcano climb in Nicaragua that few people with normal feet would have been able to accomplish.
I am grateful for this community created by clubfoot.net, and hope to learn more about other people's stories.
Added on 26 Oct 2009