Skip to main content

feet

Last fall at the annual Wake County Library Sale, one of the books I bought, written by a podiatrist, dealt with why people's feet hurt. While the author discusses evolution in the introduction, so far the chapters have dealt with both scientific facts about the body and experiences from her own life and her practice. After reading four chapters, I can't help but put the book down and think of the verse from Psalms "we are fearfully and wonderfully made".

Did you know most of the bones in a child's foot remains cartilage until well after puberty? It's only after the foot stops growing that the cartilage solidifies to bone. How well designed is that? A female's foot will change sizes twice after that...during or after childbearing, and in the early 60's/ late 70's...due to relaxing of muscles, which allows the bones to spread. Again, how well thought out!

Also, circulatory problems can be detected in their early 30's (such as emphysema from smoking) even though other symptoms won't show up until twenty years later...by the color of the feet. I'd always heard Dad say you could always tell when a diabetic wasn't eating right by the swelling or discoloration in their feet, and I've since learned with other family members that the feet can also indicate how well the heart or kidneys are working. If the vital organs aren't functioning properly, one of the first places it shows is in the feet.

Unlike the Chinese, I've never considered feet beautiful. (In the rural and countryside of China, only immoral girls will wear sandals without hose or socks comparable to going bra less here). And yet I'm amazed to discover how vital and important our feet really are.

Five years ago I had to start wearing either orthopaedic shoes or a special tennis shoe. I hated it. But with two days of wearing correctly fitting shoes, my hip pains were 95% gone, my lower back totally disappeared, and the pain in my feet was 40% better. All because we correctly supported my arches. I would never have dreamed that something as simple as flat feet could cause so much pain throughout the body.

The more I learn about how our bodies, including our feet, interact, the more impressed I am with just how awesome our Creator is. His Design is amazing, and I long for the day when we are given the perfectly designed body free from all curses. When I think about how intricately designed this broken body is, I can't even begin to fathom what awaits.

Comments

Lydia said…
Very interesting- I love info like this. I need to scrounge up a photo I have SOMEWHERE of a chinese lady's foot- it's gross.

Popular posts from this blog

things we do for love

Saturday we had a baby shower for Bobby's niece. As I was making the mints, Bobby asked what else was on the menu. After I recited off the litany of items, he responded with "No peanut butter?! This shower is for Hannah! What's she going to eat?" (Hannah has had stomach problems over the years and has been unable to tolerate many foods, but peanut butter has been her staple.) Despite my assurances that she would enjoy the foods we were having, he was adamant that I needed to make peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the shower. Even though I protested that NOBODY took that to a shower, he persisted, and informed me I could make them dainty with my little cutter. And so I did. To my surprise all but 3 were eaten. Who'd a thunk it?

get your house in order

My grandmothers were very clean people. My mother thoroughly enjoys cleaning, though she doesn't quite hit the same level my grandmothers were on. I don't enjoy cleaning, but I do like things to be clean. I've almost given up on neatness. One thing that they all instilled in me is the crazy concept that your house must be in order before you go somewhere big - like a vacation or something. After all, you could die in a car crash or have to go to the hospital, and then people would go into your house and find it in a terrible mess. Who wants to be remembered by that? So up until this past year, I would sometimes be up almost all night not only trying to get things packed up, but also trying to totally clean house as well. Or should I say, make the house presentable? The Chinese had a horrible superstition that my mother and grandparents would have enjoyed. Spring Festival (the Chinese New Year based on the lunar calendar) required EVERYTHING to be cleaned top to

Wait...it's almost March?!?

 10 more months 'til Christmas. This last month has been an absolute blur. Cleaning at Mrs. Bryan's house, cleaning at our house, lots of thinking and brainstorming and rearranging, appointments upon appointments, sinus infection/allergies, Bobby's surgery, meeting with surgeon and finally agreeing to future outpatient surgery for me, ongoing updates from my parents, garden tilled and snow peas, potatoes and beets planted (and yes I left several rows empty between the potatoes and beets for something else to go later as a buffer), chickens are laying, we may have a broody hen..in FEBRUARY!!!, we have two roosters that need to disappear, lots of family have been in from out of town to assist with the sorting and cleaning at Mrs. Bryan's house, and somewhere in the midst of it all I've found time to pay bills and catch up on a few emails. While I no longer feel like our house is a disaster zone, it is still overwhelming. Years ago a friend posted a quote by Martin Lut