From the collection of shoe boxes in my closet, I've tried more brands of sneaks than I want to admit. I supinate, have a wide forefoot, narrow heel, high arches, hammer toes and residual nerve damage left by the RSDS following bunion surgery on the right foot. I've concluded that New Balance are the ones for me. When the original liner/arch supports start to break down, I remove them and use semi-rigid arch supports. I tried orthotics but they shifted my balance to where my hips were out of alignment, caused back spasms and more trips to the chiropractor than the orthotics were worth. I was told that most athletic shoes are made for people who pronate so the shoes are more apt to aggrevate supination unless the wearer compensates for it. The most comfortable pair of shoes I own are hiking boots that lace up past the ankles to give them support. Carol

The best advice anyone can give you is to go to a woman podiatrist and take her advice. Someone else mentioned that there's NO one answer for PF--everyone's feet are built differently, so it's impossible for anyone not familiar with your feet to be able to 'prescribe' the perfect shoe. Your podiatrist should be able to. But this is the one field of medicine where I truly believe it makes a difference whether you go to a man or woman. My pod. is a woman and she understands not only feet, but women's fashion issues, and her recommendations have been life (or foot-) savers for me. I will say this--I know New Balance is often recommended for those who suffer PF. I bought 2 expensive pairs of them and cannot wear them for more than about an hour at a time. Another difference? I've seen a lot of PF sufferers recommend Birkenstocks--a shoe my pod. says NEVER to wear. So as you can see, your best bet is to follow your own dr's advice. HOpe you get relief soon. The excercises and meds your dr. will prescribe are probably the best thing you can do for the condition. Really helps me.

I usually just read KT - very seldom post. But, here goes. I am a plumber’s wife. Yes, costs are high - we understand and fuss too when we pay the supply bill or purchase new equipment or fill the trucks up with fuel. I had my GE dryer repaired about 2 years ago, and what cost me $75 7 or 8 years ago cost me $287 the last time. This was for the small bearing unit that fits on the spindle in the middle of the back of the dryer drum. You can almost replace the dryer for not much more than that. Here is part of how our costs are figured. We HAVE to carry a minimum of a million dollar contractor's liability policy and a 1 million dollar vehicle liability policy; figure in the cost of operating 3 trucks (fuel, tires, repair, oil changes, tags, inspection stickers, etc); cost of equipment, and this are just a few pieces of our equipment I’m listing (4 sewer machines of different sizes with the cheapest being nearly $1000 and the biggest and most costly one being nearly $3900; 2 snake cameras - one for sewer lines that costs $1250 and the other one that costs $6750 for isolation tests on water and gas lines within the house); costs for Continuing Education in order to maintain plumbing licenses each year runs about $500 per plumber; fee for state tradesman organization that we belong to in order to get reduced prices on those liability policies we have to carry; bonds for each town we work in; the CPA, even though I do the books up until tax time; office expense - we donated a 15'x15' section of my husband's shop to be used as the office but you still have to have internet, supplies, etc; cell phones - two of the towns we work in have ordinances where you have to use hands-free units or get a ticket, so that added an initial cost to the phones. The phones plans have to have adequate data usage figured in as some of our customers do not call, they prefer to text us and have us respond the same way. Personally I dislike that, but it is what it is; equipment will not last indefinitely so you also have to figure in replacement cost which we do based on past history of usage life of the various pieces of equipment; there are other things that have to be included besides the ones I have listed. All these costs have to be prorated out and they come into bearing when figuring how much per hour a call will cost. You will notice that I have not even addressed the expense of wages, unemployment insurance, workers comp, the company’s share of SS and MC, etc. Most craft/trade companies are owned by honest, hard working individuals who do not try to make their living off of what is charged to any one person. It is just ridiculously expensive to operate a business where someone else’s health and well-being is in your hands - yes, I mean your plumber - stop and think about who you are trusting to handle your access to potable water and who makes sure you have no cross contamination. Hope you all understand. Peta - It does not matter if all your pipes are confined in a slab or not. Tree roots get into sewer lines out in the yard and travel inside the lines because that is where the moisture is. Ask your plumber what they removed from the line. It may also be that your sewer line is separated or even partially collapsed in an area. This is where those cameras we use come into play. Since you are having difficulties with your plumbing as frequently as you are, it would pay to get a plumbing company who can camera your lines to see if the problem can be located and corrected. You really should not be having sewer line problems that frequently - something is wrong somewhere. Also, do you have to have your tank pumped frequently? If so, you quite probably have a leach line problem.

Eld nailed it. The toe hurts when trying to bend it upward which is the natural movement when walking. The cartilage is gone and there are bone spurs on both sides of the joint, so there is a lot of sharp pain when walking. The stiff soles keep the toe from bending -- as much at least. He listed some athletic shoe companies which would work, but I really don't want to wear that type of shoe all the time. And even though I am an old lady, I really don't want to wear old lady shoes, The surgery consists of removing the joint and a bit of toe bone. The first guy didn't explain it well (and didn't suggest any alternatives), so I went to another podiatrist. His surgery is the same, but at least he explained -- the bone is not reconnected, leaving the big toe only held on by tissue -- muscle, tendons and scar tissue. That sounds gross to me! But no joint, no pain in the joint and the toe can bend with pressure. Another surgery is replacing the joint or removing the joint and fusing the bones together. That he does not recommend as recovery is long. I'll probably end up with the floppy toe surgery eventually as my toe doesn't hurt all the time. Thanks for all the ideas. Looks as if I need to hit some shoe stores. Right now I'm going to read that other thread.