The Root Cause

At the rate things are going, pretty soon I will have nothing to complain about. This past while I have allocated funds and energy towards 'fixing that which is wrong' ...

My car had a short list of things which needed to be repaired. In two days, that list should be empty. Except ... I drove over a rough patch of road last night and it sounded like something gave in the front, passenger tire area (a shock?). Is it Murphy's law that something must break as other things get fixed?

My glasses broke a while ago, which meant that I had to get a new pair of specs. The prescription is up to date, the style is newer and with the amount of time that I spend at the computer my eyes are very happy. Except ... the bridge of my nose is quite sensitive as I have been back a few times to adjust the fit. I suppose this is just a natural part of the process. We'll get it right sooner or later.

My hair is cut in a style and is at a length that is working for me. The secret? A minimal amount of styling product; finger comb my hair into place; then sit and watch TV until bedtime; sleep on it; fluff in the morning. Sitting still and not touching it is key. Doing housework,doing anything that triggers the 'running my hands through my hair' instinct or going outside is off limits. Gravity (moving my hair out of where I have placed it) and wind are my enemy. Who knew hair styling could be so easy?? The only downfall? Hair grows ...

Then ... there are my feet. I have (almost) stopped complaining about them because nothing has changed. There has been a gradual increase of symptoms over the course of recent history (most notably since I started seeing a podiatrist just over a year ago). I was going to a podiatrist that was simply treating my symptoms. No matter what I asked, he had no answers except to keep coming back and he would treat things as they went wrong. I was so frustrated that I decided not to go back. I thought that I could simply convince my feet to toughen up. I was wrong.

I have all but stopped extra curricular moving because my feet are so sensitive to anything other than day-to-day usage. Exercise, walking, dancing and standing have been on a steady decline. It was time to make a change. I decided I would start with my podiatrist.

I think I found a miracle doctor last night. His initial assessment was thorough. He showed me exactly what has gone wrong and is going wrong with my feet. Absolutely every word that came out of his mouth was an answer to something I had wondered about. He talked about what orthotics could do and he placed pressure in spots that allowed my toes to automatically move to a better position. The moment he mimicked what the orthotic could do, there was instant relief (where there wasn't even pain to start with).

I was at a point where I would have done almost anything to make this foot 'thing' stop progressing. These feet of mine have a lot of miles left in them and I want to do something now, so that in five/ten/fifteen and twenty years I will still be light on my feet and going where ever I direct my feet to take me.

He is treating the source of my symptoms and simply managing the symptoms to provide temporary relief as his long term plan starts to work its magic. I would be surprised if this doesn't work because it feels like it is the answer that I have been searching for long before I knew there was a problem.

Getting to the root of an issue is the way to address anything in life. Whether it is preventative maintenance, health, relationships or even hair. Even if the solution is a long term goal, work on the root cause of the problem and the symptoms start to decrease.