Prior to leaving for England, I posted on this board about ideas for traveling with arthritis in my foot with which I had recently been diagnosed. I got lots of ideas and I thought I would pay back by sharing what I did and how well it worked.
First of all, I took three pairs of shoes- Taos Plim Soul Lux white leather sneakers, black Kuru Atom sneakers, and Aetrex Jullian sandals which I wore like slippers (too cold to wear outdoors although I have on other trips). I have wide feet in addition to foot problems and that does limit the choices. The sneakers all are expensive but at some point with my feet. I just don’t care. My podiatrist told me that the Taos have the most support of any over the counter shoes she has ever seen. When I asked about Kuru, she told me they had contacted her for input on their shoes. (I learned about Kuru on this board).
The Taos were new versions of same shoes I bought last summer and the Kurus were totally new to me. I tried the Kurus out for a couple weeks prior to going and thought they were better than my Taos on the foot with arthritis but not as good for my right foot which needs metatarsal support which they do not provide. Thus, I bought some over the counter pads that were supposed to help. I had also bought a TheraICE ankle pack wrap from Amazon on the advice of my son who had taken it to Thailand. He had broken his ankle a couple years earlier and still has problems with it. (I was somewhat worried about taking it on a carry on but had no problems either going or coming from London.) And on the advice of a forum member, I bought compression ankle foot sleeves that left the toes open (Techware compression ankle/foot sleeves from Amazon).
When I arrived in London, my feet hurt which worried me a lot. That day and the next were not great even though I wasn’t walking even 10,000 steps -more like 6500. This is what I did that turned things around.
- I alternated every day between the two pairs of sneakers.
- I wore the compression ankle sleeves with the Kurus. They weren’t comfortable with the Taos. I tried the metatarsal supports but ended up trashing them. For some reason, the ankle sleeves provided what I needed and the metatarsal supports were uncomfortable (both with and without the sleeves).
- I used the ankle ice wrap on my arthritic foot in the evening and a different ice pack I found in the freezer of our rental on my other foot.
- I would leave the wrap out over night and heated it for 30 seconds in the microwave each morning. I did it for both feet. Someone on this forum said heat helps arthritis and since the wrap could be both frozen and microwaved I tried it. It really helped my feet to feel good in the morning. This, the icing, and the sleeves are the things that I think made the biggest difference.
- I made some minor modifications to what I did. Some evenings my husband and niece would walk after dinner and if we had walked a lot, I did not join them. I pretty consistently sat and rested for some of the time we were in museums. I move faster than others in the morning and for years I have gone out walking while others were getting dressed or still sleeping. I had to learn patience and not do that.
- I started taking Tumeric several weeks before I left on the advice of a forum member.
- I took some Aleve but not consistently.
- We walked about 20,000 steps most days and I actually did fine most of the time with the above. I was very very happy with this.