ishte | Shoes for Mommy

Today we went to visit my Mommy. A couple of days ago she talked about her visit with "The Foot Doctor" and told me that he said she needs to go up a shoe size because she doesn't have enough room in her toe box and it's making her toes sore. She's 91, so you know she's got other issues as well. He gave her a name of what was going on with her feet but she doesn't hear well, and couldn't remember what he said other than it started with V. Well, she also said the same word was on my brother's death certificate, and on her heart doctor's door. So in a moment, I figured out it was vascular, as in cardiovascular, or heart and vascular (in the case of her heart doctor's door). So it's probably some sort of venous vascular disease, given that her feet have a lot of spider veins and resulting discoloration.

Anyway, today after we got back from dinner, I sat with her and talked to her about it, and she showed me her feet. She banged her left one getting into her sister's car. She said it was because she had to ride in the back seat and it was too small to get her long legs in. This is probably true. She can get into the front seat of my Fit just fine, but the way the Fit is laid out, the front door is almost as long as you'd expect on a coup, and I always have the front seat in a pretty far back position for her comfort. But she does pretty much get herself sitting, and then pulls her legs in without really bending them very much. Then once both feet are in, she just kind of ooches her bottom into the middle of the seat and leaves her feet tucked almost against the side of the footwell near the door. So she has a booboo on her outer ankle bone and of course at 91 she's slower to heal. She also had him looking at an injury to her big toe and that's the one he told her she needs a bigger shoe. Apparently, her shoe is causing pain around her toenail.

So we sat and I showed her a shoe I found that is designed so that she can just step into it, but which will stay on once her foot is settled. I'd talked to her about them on the phone, and sent her a link. I told her then that they're expensive, but the reviews are pretty good. I picked one that I feel like looks the most like the kinds of sneakers she typically wears. So today I showed them to her. She seemed to like them, and was able to see the video of how they work well enough to have a positive reaction. I showed her the same shoe in several colors, and then asked her what color she liked the best. Well... now she hems and haws about it. "Well... probably black I guess..." I can tell that she is not that excited about black shoes. and then she told me she wasn't even sure what size she was wearing because New Balance Shoes are inconsistent with industry standard sizing, and she had been just going and trying on shoes until she found a comfortable size.

I let it go for a while, and we watched Jameson play with his magnetic building set. In a little bit though, Mommy got up and came back with a pair of shoes. She said that she'd bought these after the visit with "The Foot Doctor™" (I know he's a podiatrist CoM that's just what she always calls him). He had tied them for her so she could slip them on and off, but surprise! She can't get them on right even with a shoe horn because the tongue isn't properly secured. But we did get her biggest foot into a shoe, and I got a feel of where her toe is. For her, her big toe is longer than the rest. She has a NORMAL foot, which looks really strange to me with my Morton's Toe foot lol. So to me it seems like her big toe is still pretty close to the front of the shoe. So we'll just say she does not have pretty feet now, and she needs shoes that don't make them feel worse.

So I explored the difference in sizing and came back to the page with the shoe's we'd been looking at and asked her. "Which would you rather have? Black? or Purple?" And she then says "Well, Black goes with about everything, but I've got black shoes already." So pressed ever so slightly, she admits freely that she'd rather have purple. So without further ado, they go straight into the shopping cart, I let her watch me find a 15% off coupon to save a little money and then pay for them myself to be delivered to her house in a few days. Now I knew she wanted them when she saw them, because otherwise she would have just shut me down. She wouldn't have talked about not being sure the right size to get, and wouldn't have got up and brought me her new shoes that she can barely get on by herself. So I didn't feel bad at all about just ordering them, even though I did not go as far asking her permission "Can I order these for you?" Nope. No reason to give an opportunity for a denial. She needs them. I can afford them. I might not spend $109 on a pair of shoes for myself, but for my mom, they'll probably last the rest of her life, and it if means she can get her shoes on and off by herself for a while longer and still wear normal shoes like she wants, that's even better. That she gets purple shoes like she wants instead of "goes with about everything" shoes she doesn't really care for outside of perceived practicality, that's just bonus. Besides most of her clothes will go with purple shoes since she has tons of purple stuff, and green stuff, and other colors purple will work well with.

She tried to get me to let her pay me back for them. I declined. She'll probably still find a way to pay me back for them. We already know that we are not allowed to ever pay for dinner when we go out. She will fight us for the bill. lol. She literally jerked a bill out of my daughter's hand when she tried to pick it up off the table when we took her out for her birthday. She's getting to the point where she can't see the pin pad when she uses her card at Five Guys and Fries though... so since it's a favorite I can see me or my daughter being able to get one of our cards in first pretty soon, and maybe that will get her used the idea. She always let my brother pay when he joined us. So... Lol

Anyway. That's my story of how I bought my mom a new pair of shoes.

We'll talk about the walker she has that she ought to be using but says she thought she had one with wheels... and the tripod one WITH wheels she has in the garage that she says is not a walker later. For now, in that case I'll buy her a set of wheels and skis for the walker she has and see if I can get her to use it when she's out.