Letter to my Podiatrist

Dear Dr. Podiatrist,

I have been stewing over yesterday's visit since I left your office.  I'm really annoyed with you. This was our second visit;  I saw you six weeks ago.  You were not very communicative.  I walked in, with a list of things I had been doing and you didn't care. I had my shoes in the car in case you wanted to see what I wore, but you didn't ask, and you were so not interested, I didn't even bring it up.  I said I thought I had plantar fasciitis and you spent 10 seconds with my foot and proclaimed my Achilles tendons too stiff.  Then you began wrapping tape around a piece of foam on my foot.  I was perplexed.  You never said what you were doing, or why you were doing it.  You never said what I was suppose to do with it.  Perversely, I just waited to see if you were going to explain yourself, because I'm kind of passive-aggressive like that, but nope, you never said a word about it.

I thought you were going to send me out of your office with no clear answers.  Fortunately, I also had a list of questions I wanted to ask.  Once I started asking them, you actually became more user-friendly.  You did answer my questions.  I kind of liked that you said you wanted to take a conservative approach and you were confident I would overcome this quickly.  I was a little surprised that the only things you mentioned were to stop running, do a specific stretch 3 times a day, and purchase some orthotic shoe inserts.  You suggested anti inflammatories, but I do not want to be taking them for forever and said so.  I asked about the steroid shot but you said no, let's try the easy fix first.  I asked if I should be doing anything else, and should I try a night boot.  You said no. I felt like maybe there should be more, but you didn't think so.  So off I went.

I stopped running.  I got the shoe inserts.  I did the stretches.  I discovered the shoe inserts hit my foot back at the heel.  After 4 weeks, I began to wonder if I was seeing no improvement because the inserts were aggravating it.  I wondered this because my foot hurt worse in the evenings after I had spent time in the shoes with the inserts.  I stopped using them.  However, I switched to a shoe with good arch support for going to the gym, and I wore orthotic (Spenco) sandals the rest of the time. My feet wore some sort of arch support 90% of my waking hours.  I took over the counter anti inflammatories for a week, and was aggravated to see no difference.

In addition, I have a slant board in my bathroom, and I occasionally use the frozen water bottle to roll under my foot.  I see the chiropractor regularly for my back and the chiro spent extra attention on my foot.  I explored acupuncture on the foot, and while it wasn't pleasant, there was a little improvement.  Sadly, nothing gave me miraculous relief, or lasting relief.

After 6 weeks, my foot still hurt.  Every day, every time I used it. I came back to see you at the appointed time.  You hadn't even asked what I was doing before you began to tell me I wasn't improving because I hadn't done what you told me to do.  I had mentioned a visit to the acupuncturist and that I saw the chiropractor.  You were offended that I would seek help from elsewhere and told me that if I wanted treatment to work, I needed to stick with one, and I wasn't getting better because of that.  I was offended that you had no idea what I had been doing.  I did exactly what you asked me to, yet you did not listen to me at all.  You accused me of not following your treatment program.  You hadn't even asked me if I had.  You assumed that if I had tried acupuncture or the chiropractor, then obviously I wasn't doing what you suggested.  You assumed wrong, and you did not even wait to see if I had followed your 2 protocols.  Astonishingly enough, you were also unhappy with me for not using the prescription you had given me.  A prescription you apparently gave me at our last visit, without ever mentioning you were giving me a prescription.  Honestly, I found out you had prescribed an anti-inflammatory (directly to my pharmacy) when I got the notice from my insurance company 5 weeks after you sent it in. I then had to call the insurance company to ask what this was.  Had you listened to me on our first appointment, you'd have known I wasn't interested in taking drugs long term anyway.

You also implied that I was wasting your time.  That I was stringing out visits when I could be doing more.  That one really perplexed me.  You were the one who wanted to be conservative.  I was really confused as to why you thought I was making us need more visits, but you were on a tirade, and obviously were not interested in hearing anything else.

I'm sure you recall our time together somewhat differently.  However, I have no interest in hearing what you think happened. I have no interest in seeing you again.  I think you didn't listen and I will not be visiting with you again.  If I want someone to ignore me, I have 5 children for that.  If I want a doctor who will listen to me, I will be finding one elsewhere.

Sincerely,
Thoroughly disgruntled