Ruby’s Feet
We took Ruby back to the podiatrist because her feet were getting worse with her custom orthotics. He said they weren’t a good fit so he re-scanned her feet and is having another pair made that aren’t as wide. There was no mention of surgery. We have to wait 2-3 weeks to get the new orthotics.
In the meantime, I really felt like I wanted a second opinion so I asked a person in our ward that works with many orthopedics in the area. He recommended someone to us so we went to him last week. He seemed very knowledgeable but he has a very different solution to Ruby’s foot pain than the podiatrist.
He said orthotics are ok for a little while but it doesn’t take long for your feet to get lazy and the muscles to get weak and then your feet hurt if you aren’t wearing orthotics, arch supports, etc. He also talks about how most shoes aren’t the correct shape of your foot, have a heel that pushes your forward, and are too stiff so your foot isn’t moving like it was meant to move so your feet get weak and start hurting.
So he recommended she do some foot yoga, which is basically physical therapy you do at home to strengthen your feet and leg muscles so your arch and foot shape correct themselves. He also recommended she get some shoes that are natural / minimalist / barefoot shoes. He says bare feet are best and has a list of recommended shoes. Probably the most popular ones are Altras. I thought some of you may want to check it out – https://hoopesmd.com/shoelist/
It’s hard to find these types of shoes and Ruby really doesn’t like the look of them but we were able to find a pair of Xero brand shoes at Runner’s Corner she likes enough that she’s wearing them- she just isn’t thrilled about it.
Time will tell how things work out but we are really hopeful this is the solution – and a lot better than surgery.
A Wedding
Norm, Kayla, Ruby, and I went to Norm’s nephew’s (Ethan) wedding last weekend in Shelley, Idaho. We decided to take Bolt to see how he would do on a longer drive. We were really hoping for it to be our turn for the battery recall before the trip but it wasn’t.
Chevy did a recall on the batteries over a year ago because they can catch on fire. It took them a long time to make the new batteries and they replace the entire, huge battery for the whole car. They have to be trucked in on pallets so they are only doing a few cars at each dealership at a time so we’re just waiting for our turn. In the meantime, we can only charge the battery to 80% of capacity because they catch on fire when they are fully charged.
So that just means we can’t go as far between charges. The battery also does quite a bit worse in the winter and on freeways. The Bolt also happens to be one of the slowest vehicles to charge. So all this means that we had to stop in both Brigham City and Pocatello on both the way up to Idaho Falls and the way back.
There are only certain chargers that are fast enough to charge the car at a reasonable speed and they happen to be in certain Wal-Mart parking lots. It took about 45 minutes each time, so at least we were able to go to Wal-Mart and/or eat out while we waited for it to charge.
I wouldn’t want to take it on really long trips or if we were in a hurry but it did cost us about half as much as gas would have.
The trip was relaxing overall because about the only thing we did besides going to the wedding and reception was to eat out and to relax in the vacation rental, which cost about half as much as a hotel and was about four times as large.
The wedding was nice and it was nice to see family we haven’t seen in way too long. It was a lot colder there and their snow hasn’t melted all winter so it was piled really high in some of the parking lots and on the sides of driveways and streets.
We realized on our way out of town that we didn’t have a photo to commemorate the event so we took this one in front of the mostly frozen over Snake River in front of the Idaho Falls temple. Don’t the girls look so thrilled (and warm)?
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