caregiving
I confess I’ve stumbled through caregiving for footcare for Lynne, my daughter, before I arrived at the present plan. Mt story should help anyone avoid my mistakes who is responsible for care for a loved one in assisted living.
My mistakes stemmed from my trivial footcare pain compared with the problems suffered by my wife Karen, Lynne, her brother and sister. I’ve never used special inserts. Karen managed Lynne’s foot care, so after Karen died in September 2019, I bought her shoes without understanding her particular problems. I only had two problems with my feet and solved them by reading a book.
A stinging pain at the tip of my longer toes and littlest toes drove me to a couple of friends who went pain free after reading Paine Free by Pete Egoscue. a nationally renowned physiologist and sports injury consultant with 25 clinical locations nationally with hundreds of therapists https://www.egoscue.com/what-is-egoscue/history/ His approach is a series of gentle exercises and carefully constructed stretches to ease muscle pain.
I’ve used the exercises in the book to relieve toe pain, back pain and shin splints. The toe pain disappeared as he said it would by walking barefoot around the house made possible by Karen’s spotless housecleaning. I bought loose-fitting lamb’s wool slippers, looser socks and footwear.
I had shin splints when I moved into my apartment after Karen died. Egoscue recommends exercises and Pam told me I walked too long in the same hiking boots (well over 1,000 miles).
History with Lynne since September 2019: Obligated by compassion and undeterred by ignorance, I bought Lynne tennis shoes from an athletic foot store so she and I could walk around Green Lake and participate in CrossFit training. She could tie the shoelaces, untie them, retie them, and knot them. Staff advised me to buy new shoes with expandable laces she would slip on and off her feet. Those are the blue and white tennis shoes she wore to CrossFit and Aegis exercises for more than a year, which I probably should have replaced.
Last summer Lynne said she’d like flip flops and staff recommended them for more comfortable summer shoes. I ordered flip flops that advertised a softer cushion. She liked them. Her feet didn’t hurt.
Soon her feet hurt in one set of clogs but not in another. The brands were different, so I bought a pair of the comfortable brand with the identical size and a different color. A few months later Lynne said the clogs hurt her feet.
This fall and winter Lynne complained her left toe hurt. Nurses pressed on all parts of her feet but she did not consistently wince at any spot. A podiatrist visited on February 22nd after which caregivers said the podiatrist treated the bottom of Lynne’s feet. Her report identified the patient problem was painful nails and calluses. She debrided the nails and calluses using aseptic technique without incident and all Lynne’s concerns and questions were addressed.
After that visit Lynne complained to staff and me that someone hurt her. Someone cut her. Her foot hurt. She cried a lot, stopped for a while and cried again. I decided I had to prepare recommendations for a better foot care plan to stop recurring problems with Lynne’s foot pain. I asked for reports, contacted my family and scheduled an appointment with her primary care physician (PCP). An addendum to the podiatrist’s report indicated that she would order X-rays of her foot and noted that the patient may benefit from custom orthotics. The X-Rays showed no evidence of fracture, bone lesion, erosion, arthrosis, or injury.
Simultaneously with her foot pain, staff were increasingly concerned by Lynne’s more aggressive, sorrowful, angry, anxious temperament they had not seen before, most likely a result of medications she was given to increase her sleep and relieve her anxiety. Plans were made to discontinue the new medications to establish a new baseline for her and have her evaluated for new medications.
Pam and Keith supported a better plan for foot care. They have arch problems with their feet and said Lynne has arches that need support. They disagreed over whether she had special inserts for her feet before assisted living. Her sons and ex-husband don’t agree whether she had special inserts for her shoes. Lynne doesn’t remember. It was time to start anew.
Lynne and I visited her PCP who had referred her to a surgeon for foot repair years before. He said she had high arches and should see “podiatry and probably inserts would help and update her shoes.” He said her blue tennis shoes and flip flops were inappropriate. Why didn’t I know that?
Two days after that visit the podiatrist at Aegis who had debrided Lynne’s calluses called me. She, or possibly another podiatrist, had examined her feet in the last year. She said she could re-examine Lynne’s feet on the next Friday, to see if she should order custom orthotics. I asked why she hadn’t made that examination earlier? As I remember her answer, she said she was focusing on the pain in her foot.
A friend in our support group with Aegis has had foot problems for years. Her doctor told her to go to the owner of a comfort shoes retail store in the Capital Hill health district. She told the doctor she needed a podiatrist. The doctor repeated his recommendation to go to the owner first, because he would modify inserts and order special orthotics if needed. If that didn’t work he would refer her to a podiatrist. The owner modified inserts in her shoes without ordering special inserts and she’s bought new ones every six months for years.
Before I scheduled a podiatrist referred by Lynne’s PCP, I wanted to get the opinion of owner of the comfort shoes store. owner. He examined her feet carefully as he grilled me on the circumstances of her footcare.
• The blue tennis shoes and flip flops were not appropriate for her feet. Why didn’t I know that?
• Lynne takes her shoes and socks off and puts them on constantly. She loses socks and shoes.
• Special inserts for shoes would mean rotating staff would be inserting and removing them when she changes shoes.
• Special inserts may not work consistently in all the shoes she has.
• Socks may or may complicate her comfort. A lot of people prefer no socks, and Lynne seemed ambivalent about it. She didn’t wear socks in her clogs. Nevertheless, the owner recommended she wear socks to see if they help because socks can be managed.
• Lynne, Pam and Keith complained that Lynne’s 3 end toes are separating away from the big toe. Karen had the same problem with her feet. The owner said that was because Lynne’s arches slighted tipped her feet to the outside. He could glue a ridge to the outside of the insert in the shoe that would balance her feet better.
• He increased the cushion in the shoe inserts to absorb the pressure from her high arches.
• The owner and Lynne liked the black shoes we ordered, and he modified the inserts in the shoe, so they don’t have to be changed.
• She wears boots for rain and for dress, so he fitted her for half-calf high boots that are waterproof up to the webbing above her sole. He did not have to modify that boot’s insert. She wore them back to Aegis, where I requested she wear those when she wants to dress up or walk outside in rainy weather.
• I requested staff give me all the footwear Lynne has so they can establish a baseline of her comfort in the new black shoes and boots. They liked that because fewer is better. Lynne’s foorwear wardrobe had two sets of boots (one boot was missing but she says she knows who took it and will get it back), two sets of flip flops, two sets of slippers and her blue tennis shoes. I will save her footwear for a while, but I can’t justify why I saving them.
• Since I was wary of Lynne wearing socks and shoes that are too tight, I recommended she not wear socks with her new shoes. I made no recommendation about walking barefoot.
This foot care plan was a work in progress so I recommended we evaluate it every six months if nothing else requires it.
Two days later the night nurse required a re-evaluation. Lynne had some redness on the heel of one foot, so she recommended Lynne wear socks.
I confessed the next morning. “The no socks was my idea. The owner of the shoe store and every reasonable person in the world probably disagreed, so I was wrong. About her feet, again. Please put socks on her feet and keep correcting me. I can’t believe I hurt her feet again.”
I got several replies of encouragement, but the most interesting were from her sister and her brother.
Pam: “You got the idea from me, too. She typically hates wearing socks. So, you don’t get all the blame for this one. 🙂 Sorry from me, too.
Keith: “Lynne notoriously never wore socks, I would say when she was wearing clogs, ‘How do you do that? She said socks made her feet feel icky.’ Love you.”