Hi, Louise (louise@lou)

I have just the opposite: low arch, or more correctly: no arch, and that's in both feet. If memory serves, I was in grade school when I was first told I had flat-ish feet (no longer -ish, however). When I was in my 30s, I took up running, at first participating in the more modest 5K and 10K events, but, before long, running half-, full-, and once-in-a-while even longer marathons. Ninety percent of today's joint woes are my own doing. LOL You say your one foot is thinner. Oddly enough, my feet – both of them tend to be swollen. My primary has suggested a number of different possible causes and hoped-for solutions (e.g., compression stockings), but nothing those far has helped to reduce the swelling. Is the swelling in any way related to my neuropathy? I wonder.

I've been very concerned about muscle atrophy. Because distance walking (and by "distance," I'm talking only the length of a city block) is no longer fun, I try to be diligent about daily rides on my stationary bicycle, adding distance weekly. I find it puzzling – pleasing, but puzzling – that my neuropathy appears to have no negative bearing on my cycling; in fact, my balance seems to improve as a result – never great, but better, and these days that's something to be grateful for.

For balance, I have a slew of balance-improvement exercises in the form of a gazillion handouts from years of doing PT. Today, I'm no longer going to PT but doing balance PT here at home as a student of an online course. I've been doing the online course since last fall. One positive result of the course, I'm almost certain, is that I've not fallen; my "recovery" skills (fall avoidance) have improved measurably.

As is the case for many of us, after dealing with neuropathy for several years, we've created relationships with what seems like a battalion of specialists. I sure had. A few months ago, I decided I had the cull the herd. I chose the specialist who seemed both the most knowledgeable and the most interested in me, not as a nameless patient but as an individual. He is a neurologist, of course, but has further refined his practice to physiatric medicine. I found him as a result of asking my primary for the name of a neurologist who makes an added effort to consider a patient's whole being, not only their neurological presentation. I regard this doctor as my "lead" doctor. That alone has simplified my life – and opened up whole days (no medical appointments!) on my calendar.

All the best to you, Louise! Let's keep working away at this.

Cheers!
Ray (@ray666)