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The CMT Foot

April 15, 2013 by Ashley 4 Comments

How is the CMT Foot different from the average foot?

Pes cavus
Pes cavus (Photo credit: EUSKALANATO)

I know many people ask me how my feet differ from everyone else’s and they often ask this because they never see my feet. I tend to always have socks on my feet because they are so chilly.  Most Charcot Marie Tooth feet are what doctor’s call a Pes Cavus foot.  Before I took medical terminology in college I did not actually know what this meant.  All I knew what I have a Pes Cavus foot.  Isn’t that awesome?  It told me a lot… NOT.

Now, I was so excited to find this picture because it is going to show you a lot of what I am talking about.  As you can see the long bone in the arch that the big toe is attached to drops down drastically which the average foot does not have.  This bone placement is what causes the high arch of the foot.  You can see the difference in the second image that depicts the average foot.  You can see that there is a drastic change in the arch and toes as well as tendons of the foot.

Normal foot
Normal foot (Photo credit: EUSKALANATO)

Now that we have looked at and talked about that I want to point out how little of the foot actually touches the floor.  One day I want to get some paint and make my foot print on a piece of paper to show you just how little of my foot touches the ground and causes much of the balance problems that I have because of the CMT.  You can kind of see how little touches.  The foot will touch down on the heel, toe base, and along a thin line on the outside of the foot.  In addition to this “hammer toes” is very common among CMT patients where the toes curl and only the tips of the toes touch the ground.

A great way to show you what this feels like is to take your hand and put all of your fingertips onto the tabletop in front of you.  Your fingernails should be touching or almost touching the table and you now put weight down on them and you can get an idea of the kind of pain  that comes with standing on toes like that all of the time

Filed Under: Featured, Health Tagged With: Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, CMT, Conditions and Diseases, feet, Foot, Health, Peripheral nervous system, Pes cavus, Photograph, Toe, United States

Pro Basketball Players Can be Disabled Too…

April 13, 2013 by Ashley 1 Comment

basketballI hope that the title really pulled you in because that was what I was trying to do.  This story is pretty old, but that doesn’t make it any less important.  Back in 2003 the Philadelphia 76’ers had a Canadian Basketball player get injured which lead to his diagnosis of Charcot Marie Tooth Disease.  I want you to see that even though in my family where we knew we had it and were diagnosed at a young age that isn’t necessarily how it works.  Todd MacCulloch was diagnosed with it and he never knew he even had it.

The crazy thing about this disease is how much it really varies between individuals.  One person could be “normal” until they hit their 50’s and it all goes down hill for them from there and then there is the opposite side of things where a baby is diagnosed and that child has to struggle their whole life.  The reality of it is that no one knows what it is going to be like for you. You can’t know what it will bring and doctor’s can only speculate and watch as things progress and tell you what they think might happen in the next year or five years based on how things have been for you specifically so far.

I don’t want to scare people into thinking that they have a disability, but there are some things to watch for to see if you have it:

  1. Poor balance which could include flat feet or really high arches.
  2. Weak/shaky hands
  3. Numbness, tingling, burning pain in the hands and feet (if you have these symptoms I suggest you see a neurologist.)

I know that many of these symptoms are ones that also fit for other diseases, but I also want to include two images below.  These are what doctors call the typical CMT hands and feet.  If your hands and feet look like this it is very likely that you have CMT.

English: The foot of a person with Charcot-Mar...

basketball

Related articles
  • What is Charcot Marie Tooth Disease….
  • You know you have cmt when………….
  • Spreading Awareness One Person at a Time
  • O’Keeffe’s Healthy Feet and Working Hands Review

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, CMT, Conditions and Diseases, Country Music Television, Facebook, Health, Pes cavus

One Step at a Time… My Orthotics

August 9, 2012 by Ashley 5 Comments

CMT

I have been meaning to sit down and give you all the low down on a part of my life that I usually keep pretty quiet about.  I have been working hard to be more open and willing to talk about my Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT) on a personal level and not just rattling off statistics and medical terminology that just goes over most peoples heads (including mine sometimes).  You can see my oh so beautiful foot posted above.  I will admit to you all right her that I hate my feet.  I hate how they look, how much they hurt and burn, and I hate that I stand on so little of the bottom of my foot.  I don’t have your average foot and I know no one has perfect feet, but this has always been a bit of an eyesore to me.  I have high arches that in little slip on shoes and sandles is always up higher than the sides of the shoes, and I have the start of hammer toes that cause them to all be all curled up.

Orthotic

Because I walk on such a little potion of my foot.  The first step was to get me orthotics that will support my foot and make it so that I do not have to put more weight on the outsides of my feet.  These blue orthotics pictured on the left are amazing.  They help to aleviate a lot of pain and make it so that I can stand and walk a lot longer than without them.  The downfall to these is that I cannot put them in a lot of shoes.  It takes a lot of shoe shopping to find a cute pair that they fit in.  On top of that dress shoes are a big no-no.  There are very few dress shoes that can fit my orthotics in them.  Right now all I have are these cute blue tennis shoes! I don’t think I have ever had tennis shoes that are quite this cute before!  The orthotics reach up and cradle my arches which is nice because it helps to alleviate strain and pulled tendons across it.

Just using my orthotics is real helpful, but I have no propreoception in my feet.  That means I cannot tell where my feet are in space.  For example my doctors tested this by having me close my eyes and they would move my foot one way and ask where they moved it (up, down, right, or left).  It’s kind of fun to do! You can try it out.  Just have someone move your foot for you with your eyes closed and guess! I would love to hear all about it!!! Lol.

 

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Athletic shoe, Charcot Marie Tooth, CMT, feet, Foot, Footwear, orthotics, Pes cavus

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