I’m now 63 and was born with a clubfoot on my right leg and underwent surgery when I was around 7 years old. I have distant memories of a right leg with a heavy plaster cast. After that absolutely nothing was ever said and it’s only in very recent years that I’ve realised that was what I was born with. All the signs were there – very underdeveloped calf muscle, shoe size at least half a size smaller than the left leg, a long scar on the inside of the foot, stiffness of the ankle.
As you get older things start to tighten up all over so it’s been no surprise that I had a Achilles Tendon problem requiring physio and a tight Plantar Fascia both of which I have to try and constantly work at. Part of the problem is that many young physios haven’t seen many cases like this so tell you to work at calf exercises to build it up whereas my reading of the literature suggests that no matter how many exercises I do it will never bulk up! In fact it may possibly diminish.
Going forward – at least I enjoy walking and can – I don’t have problems with pain – but inspite of that, every time I look at that foot and leg I feel I’d be better off without it.
