How I successfully relieved the arthritis pain in my feet

It was 6:33am. The droplets of rain sprinkled against the window while “Everybody Hurts” by REM was quietly playing from my DAB radio sat on the bedside table. The sounds of Magic FM was a signal to start the day.

“How ironic” I thought to myself; it was a fitting song to how I’ve felt practically every morning for the past 3 years.

This morning was no different; my toes were stiff and aching, and I knew that it may get worse as the day wore on.

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Thankfully, it was a Friday morning and the weekend was approaching. This meant I could put my feet up and relax a bit, and if my feet felt fine, I could perhaps muster up the energy to take my lively 3 year old grandson to the local park.

But first, the slow procedure of getting ready for work.

It use to only take me 45 minutes to have a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast and get out the house. Now it takes me 1 hour or even longer if it’s a particularly bad day. Luckily, it was not one of those days.

Despite managing to get ready relatively quickly, when it came time to leave the house, I had to mentally prepare myself for the journey ahead; a daily routine these days.

My Skechers shoes have replaced my high heels and sports socks have replaced tights; at this point in my life, comfort is a priority over everything else.

I was as comfortable as can be and with one foot out the door, I was ready to tackle the day head on.

The commute to work

It takes most people 10 minutes to walk from where I live to the train station.

For me however, that time has extended to 15 minutes; rather impressive considering the constant aches and feeling of discomfort in my feet.

By the time I arrive at the station, my feet needs to rest. If I’m lucky, I’ll be left standing with some breathing room and a handle to hold onto; if I’m really lucky, there’ll be an empty seat on the train...I ended up standing next to the doors while being wedged between two other commuters.

The 25 minute train ride into the City felt longer and the constant shuffling of bodies and occassional shoving wore thin on my patience.

Nevertheless, I managed to reach my stop without going off on an explosive tirade.

I got out the morning rush of the station intact, and then had to walk another 300 metres or so until I arrived at the office.

Though I never to use be, I’m actually now very appreciative of the fact that my commute is quite short compared to some of my fellow city workers.

“Right, Phil has a meeting at 10 with a client, and then I need to do the minutes for the meeting at 10:45”.

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sharp pain in my big toe.

I stopped dead in my tracks and tried to spread out my toes as much as I could to relieve the pain.

About 10 seconds went by until the pain ceased and I was ready to walk again. I was only a couple of minutes away from the office.

As I approached the office building, I felt a sense of relief as I knew that the hardest part of my day was finally over...or so I thought.

I was fed up of being fed up

It must have only been 10 minutes into the senior management meeting that I was doing the minutes for until my toes began to ache again. Not unusual, I spreaded my toes out and kept them spreaded for as long as I could.

The more my toes rubbed together, the more they ached. It was probably karma from wearing tight high heels for all those years.

I dreamt of a getaway to the Lake District.

“I think I’ll take a look at Sally’s Cottages’ website on my lunch break” I thought to myself.

My husband and I have been toying with the idea of a short holiday break for as long as I could remember.

The senior accountant raised an important point which quickly snapped me back to reality, while my constant foot ache all throughout the meeting kept my mind from wandering too much.

Everyday for the past 3 years I’ve battled with the discomfort, aches and pains in my feet, prominently the toes. The gradual worsening of it that day reached its toll. Not only physically, but emotionally.  

Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated and fed up.

I went on my lunch break shortly after 1pm. What and where to eat for lunch was a no brainer. I wanted something light, healthy and  didn’t require me to walk too far; M&S it was!

As I sat at my work desk eating my avocado crush wrap with some Lindt chocolate in the waiting, I was searching for solutions to my foot woes rather than teasing myself with a trip to the Lake District.

Strangely enough, even though I had suffered with arthritis in my feet for the past 3 years, I had never sought for any type of treatment. I just dealt with it.

After Googling around for 20 minutes, I came across a product that claimed to alleviate the pain caused by arthritis in the feet by keeping the toes separated.

Excellent! It sounded exactly like what I needed.

Where I would’ve normally procrastinated to make a purchase, this time I didn’t for the sheer fact that it would (or at least I was hoping) improve my condition.

Funnily enough, even though I wanted my order ASAP, I opted for the standard delivery as I was willing to just endure the next few days until the product arrived. Besides, the weekend was in sight!

After putting in my online order, I finished off my lunch and went back to work with a renewed sense of enthusiasm.

Was it the nutritious avocado wrap?

Nope. It was the anticipation for something that could potentially restore my lifestyle...and the luscious Lindt chocolate of course!

Then it finally arrived...

It was a Monday evening and I had just got back home from work and my feet were aching yet again, but I was still feeling giddy from my delightful weekend.

I got to spend some time with my daughter and Grandson. We did end up going to the park but my feet simply could not keep up with the little wild one. I was just happy seeing him run around and do his thing.

A small packet with my name on it was sitting on the coffee table. I instantly knew what it was and so did my husband, who I excitedly told the day I ordered the product.

I swiftly tore the packet open, reached inside and pulled out a sleek square white box that had the logo “Feet&Feet” printed in matt silver in the centre of the lid.

As elegant as it appeared, the product is all that mattered.

As I opened the box, there it was. The pair of toe separators that I had been eagerly waiting several days for. They were sitting on a black foam bedding which contrasted their white appearence.

I took them out of their protective bag and squished and stretched them. Their gel construction made them soft and flexible.

No more playing around, now it was time to put them to the test.

I sat down on the sofa and proceeded to put one over the toes of my left foot first, followed by the right. They were a little fidgety and felt somewhat weird; not surprising as I usually don’t keep things in between my toes.

I remember chuckling to myself at the thought of wearing them to work.

I walked around the house with them on, passing by my husband several times who just gave me a bewildered look. I didn’t care because they truly felt satisfying, and I didn’t have to stop to spread out my toes every once in a while to ease the pain.

Initially I was worried that my toes would feel too compressed with shoes on. Those worries were erased as soon as I put them on and had a little walk around in the back garden.

The suggested minimum wear time was 60 minutes; I kept them on all evening and even wore them to bed. The only time I took them off was to have a shower.

It was 6:30am. The sunlight pierced through the gap in the curtains while “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen was quietly playing from my DAB radio sat on the bedside table. The sounds of Magic FM was a signal to start the day.

It was a Tuesday and it should have felt like any other weekday, but it didn’t.

I woke up to a pair of soft gel toe separators encapsulating my toes, and the stiffness and aches were all but gone.

A sense of reassurance suddenly gushed over me.

I would have cried at that moment if it wasn’t for the fact that I’m not really an emotional person. I sprung out of bed, took off my gel footwear and headed for the shower.

For the first time in 3 years, my feet felt revived.

After I had showered, I put the gel toe separators back on, much quicker and easier than the first time, then had breakfast.  

When it was time to leave for work, I put my socks on and glanced over at my small collection of high heels; “Never again” I thought to myself.

I jumped into my Skechers with a huge boost in confidence and an aim to get to the station within 10 minutes.

Customer story written by Joanne Winston for Feet&Feet

Note: The product mentioned in this story is the DuraFlex Gel Toe Separators which you can see here. They’re designed to relieve foot pain caused by various foot and toe conditions including hammer toes, overlapping toes, bunions, tendonitis, arthritis and other related issues.