My left foot
Door-to-door transport available
I was back in hospital again today to do two things, the main appointment was to get my new shoe and the ancillary one was to have blood taken for tests.
Thinking through how to get to the hospital without using the landau of unnecessary ostentation, I found there was door-to-door public transport from my home to the main entrance of the hospital, with a very convenient change-over half-way through the journey.
After a few checks on the local transport times, I got the bus and changed to the tram without having to stop for long arriving at the hospital some 30 minutes to spare before the shoe appointment.
No appointments are required for the blood giving exercise, you arrive, take a number and you are processed, pricked and your venesection is complete in less than 15 minutes.
No foretaste creates low expectations
I then went to the Orthopaedic section and waited as the appointed time came and went, I did not get seen for another 35 minutes, in which time I had buried myself in a Sudoku puzzle and read a few articles in the Economist.
In this experience, I can say never have I seen the greater need for a clear idea of what you will be getting just as for a house you see plans and models, for machines you get prototypes and for curtains you get colour cards and all the matching stuff to help you in informed decision making.
I received no such thing regarding my orthopaedic shoe such that the shoe I was fitted with last week did not get a glowing review at all, I was planning on rejecting the shoe today such that I had painfully shoe-horned my foot into one of my wide but regular shoes to prove a point.
I really should have been given an idea of what I would be getting, I was pleasantly surprised. But it shows how without a foretaste you can end up with extremely low expectations.
I really like it
Apparently, what I wore last week was prototypically to model the wearing and fitting to the real shoe, especially the shoe inlay which was to bear and distribute the weight underfoot with due consideration of the painful but healing lesions.
So, out came this boot, the inlay first tried out on my foot then put into the boot and I put on the shoe, it got all laced up and pulled to fit and there we were, a shoe that looked like it was begging for a partner shoe to make up a pair.
Black, thick felt, moulded to my own foot, bespoke and wearing well, but just for my left foot.
It fits well and I have offered a slideshow of the shoe and inlay here, pictures can do the rest of the talking.
I think the joy we feel while having new shoes is special regardless the
age. Glad that you also found a door-to-door transportation so keep up on
the good work, Akin.
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