07 December 2007

Minor imperfections of anatomy

My left leg is about half an inch shorter than my right. Pictures of me as a kid show that my left leg wasn't straight up and down - it looked bashed inward at the knee. Somehow nobody thought of this as a problem. (Then again, our "health care" during my childhood consisted of "don't get sick.")

Nowadays, this means that I lean slightly to the left (even when I'm sitting down, apparently), that touching my left toe is much easier than touching my right toe, and that standing still is nearly impossible - I have to shift around a lot. Too much walking kills my right hip, which in turn kills every other joint in both legs when I try to compensate by walking different, and eventually my lower then upper back. Also, my present exercise routine tends to leave my right hip seriously sore for days.

My current shoes have soles that are an inch and a half tall. I've recently discovered that walking around with only my left shoe on feels really nice to my right hip.

5 comments:

Janiece said...

I wonder if a pair of ortho shoes would help? Hip replacement is no fun, and that kind of abuse will likely lead to joint replacement.

Anonymous said...

As janiece said, you should probably get something like that. Otherwise it will get worse when you get older.

John the Scientist said...

I third the comments. The reptitive stress on your hip is going to cause inflammation and osteoarthtritic damage for sure.

Get some sort of corrective device if you don't want to go in for surgery.

Watch using over-the-counter NSAIDs like Advil or Aleve, there are risks with long-term use. I use Tiger Balm and the scrape / massage techniqe the Taiwanese call Cao-cao on my martial arts injuries.

MWT said...

I mostly don't take painkillers at all, actually. The problem is most noticeable after I've spent some time touristing, as usually this involves lots of walking around cities I'm visiting, through museums, etc. And until now I'd never put that much serious thought into it. Heck, until this year I wasn't really aware of any of it. I guess there are some advantages of being almost completely sedentary, it means I'm not wearing things down so fast.

Hmm. Time to look into ortho shoes I guess...

Janiece said...

Don't worry, MWT...I'm sure you'll be totally hot in your ortho shoes. And you're still my Fishy Knight!