The Cinderella Shoe Complex

I am going through a Cinderella Shoe Complex.  Except, it is not some handsome and debonair Prince who is trying to find me with the other glass slipper to my glass slipper.  Rather, it is me that is hunting and searching desperately for the correct shoe repair person to build correctly and with the right material outside of my left shoe or shoes to then level off my crumbling left hip and truly prepare for my hip replacement surgery. 

I am currently using a 13mm heel lift in all my left shoes.  The heel lift goes in the left shoe and slapped on top is my orthotic.  In my right shoe, the orthotic is slipped in.  I am fully aware that my left hip is crumbling faster than I could ever predict because the bottoms of my right shoes are forming holes due to my heavy compensation with my right leg.  Pebbles are getting stuck in the holes so when I walk in my unbalanced gaint, I start to make sound effects like a human rattle.   

When my osteopath gave me the prescription that indicated to build 17mm outside the left shoe, my first concern was finding the right shoe repair shop and especially person to do the job correctly. 

The first shoe repair shop I went to was in Pleasantville.  I could not help but grip even tighter on to the thin, yellow Shoprite bag that contained my beloved black Puma sneakers when I eyed warily at the small and dingy shoe repair shop in Pleasantville right before me.  Once I walked into that shoe repair shop and told him that my osteopathic doctor had ordered 17mm built on the outside the bottom of my left shoe, the journey to facing off with my hip replacement surgery full throttle would officially begin. 

I opened the plastic bag to reveal my precious Puma sneakers that had been with me and provided me stylish cuteness since I was a teenager.  I could not imagine the mutilation that this left Puma sneaker was about to endure.  I was beginning to doubt if I was right to choose these Puma Sneakers to be the very first pair to endure the identical appearance being ripped away from them. 

I sighed, and tied the plastic bag into a loop with determination.  It was now or never.  No looking back.  No regrets.  My osteopath had recommended this shoe repair man, and so I had full faith that I had to go through with this decision of building outside of my shoes to then prepare for my hip replacement surgery.  I finally marched into the store, but had the immediate urge to sneeze at the old and tethered leather bags that hung haphazardly on hooks and misshapen and old shoes scattered on outdated stands.  Lined at the front desk area were Christ-loving or Bible-banging pamphlets.  The store looked like it was locked in the early 1990's or even the late 1980's. 

I tentatively walked to the front area where a jovial and round-faced Asian woman nodded for me to speak. 

"I have a prescription from one of my doctors to add 17mm to this left shoe.  Are you able to do this?"  I reached into the plastic bag to reveal the left Puma sneaker that shone in the dim lighting. 

In halting English, she said: "Hold please."

She scurried to the back of the store, and out came a thin and ganley Asian man with a weathered and tanned face just like the leather bags in the store.  She said, "You tell him what you need." 

I explained again.  He gently took the left shoe, eyed it, and just nodded with a grunt: "Yes, I can do."

"What material will you use?  How much will this cost?"  I asked.

"I show you."  He went to the back of the store again and showed me a rubber sole kind of material.  My fingertips brushed against the material. 

"30 dollars," he said with finality.

That was not as expensive as I thought it would be, but I asked him anyway: "What is your background?"

 

Both the round-faced Asian woman and this weather-faced Asian man stared at me with round eyes.  The woman finally said: "Korean." 

I broke into a smile.  "Well, you know, I am Chinese.  We are both Asian.  We have something in common.   Perhaps you can giveme a discount?"

The man shook his head and grunted again, "30, and that is it."

Oh, well, I had tried.  I said: "Okay."

"Come pick up in just a couple of days," he said. 

I nodded.

Almost a week went by when I returned along with a friend of mine who was intrigued when she learned that I was indeed going forward with building material outside of the shoe to prepare for the hip replacement surgery.  I explained to her what my osteopath explained to me that my feet leveled off as equal as possible with the shoes would help prep my body for when I finally did undergo a hip replacement surgery to lessen the rehab intensity and time. 

My friend asked me: "So, can any shoe repair place do this kind of building outside of the shoe?"

"I think so."

"Why don't you go to Tony's Shoe Repair in Ossining?"

"I never heard of them," I confessed.

"Oh, they are awesome.  Tony can work magic with any kind of shoe, and he and his wife are this cute and worldly couple from Italy that play this opera music all day long." 

"Hmmm...I'll look more into it," I said. 

My friend and I approached the front desk again in this tiny shoe repair shop.  The Asian man recognized me as soon as he saw me.  He even gave me a small and awkward smile, but his smile widened when he saw my reaction to the precious left Puma sneaker.

I could not believe it.  He did an amazing job.  Looking at it from a distance, no one would ever guess that the left Puma sneaker was lifted outside because the material he used looked just as similar to the original Puma sneaker material.  I was pleasantly surprised and ready to fork over my $30 in that instant, but I first had to try them on.  I immediately stuffed my orthotics in the shoes without my original 13mm lift to test out wearing both Puma sneakers.  Almost automatically, I felt the jolt of my left hip being raised and pain radiating from the hip to the left lower side of my back. 

I cringed in pain. 

My friend asked worriedly: "Are you okay?  Are they comfortable?"

I was the impressed Cinderella to have lucked out with this first fine shoe repairman.  His workmanship was stellar and outstanding, but the reality of trying to truly embark on this journey of my body adjusting to these lifted left shoes was almost more than I could take both emotionally and physically. 

I blurted out: "It just feels so different!  I can't believe it!"

"Well, it is going to take you awhile to get adjusted to the height difference, but your body will get adjusted to it like I'm sure your body got adjusted to those heel lifts."

I nodded, and tried to walk in the shoes all over again.  The shooting pains in my left hip and lower back rewound my brain to the time when I had first tried to adjust to the heel lifts and then to the many muscle spasms that had attacked at any given moment.  Adjustment, patience, and perseverence were happening all over again.  Everything was going to be okay.  At least I had found my shoe repair man.  I happily gave him my $30. 

In the next days that followed, my osteopath and I finally talked about a game plan to adjust to these new and supposedly improved black Puma Sneakers that were my starting point of preparing for my hip replacement surgery.  She said: "Walk around in the Puma sneakers for a few minutes at a time with the orthotics and up to a hour.  Then, return to your old shoes with the left heel lift and orthotics.  Alternate.  If you need me to write a doctor's note for your workplace, let me know."

"I'll first start outside of work," I said.

And, so I did just that.  I often walk around my complex for a good ten minutes.  Stuffing my fat and flat pancake feet into my brand new black Puma Sneakers, I walked.  And, I walked.  And, pain traveled and moved along to my clumsy movements in these sneakers.  Exhausted after a ten minute walk, I took the Puma sneakers off and rubbed my feet.  Pain lingered, and I sighed.  Tomorrow was another day.  I would try again tomorrow. 

I tried the next day.  I tried the day after that.  The pain stayed and the routine of rubbing feet ensued.  Although I was incredibly grateful to this first repair man who had fulfilled my Cinderella shoe complex, there had to be another way.  If only I could have a  lift built outside and at the bottom of the shoe that could be removed instead of permanently plastered on.  If there was a removable lift outside of the shoe then I could take it off and put it on as needed to get my body adjusted.

My answer came in the form of a middle-aged woman my sister had met and introduced me to who already had a double hip replacement within less than a year a part from one another.  We met for lunch.  She walked with such ease and comfort that you would have never guessed that she had one and even two hip replacement surgeries.  I envied her freedom from pain, and wondered if I would also be that way one day.  Someday. 

Her clear blue eyes widened when she shared: "I was in pain all the time.  I could not even walk.  I had to have the hip replacement surgeries.  My last resort before the surgeries was lifting or building outside of both of my shoes."

My ears perked up.  My Cinderella Shoe Complex had kicked in about finding just the right shoe repair man.  "Who did you go to to build outside of the shoes?"

"Tony's Repair Shop in Ossining."

Bells of excitement rang off in my head.  My friend had also mentioned Tony's Repair Shop in Ossining.  "Really?  A friend of mine recommended him, too."

"Oh, he is the best, Mary!!  He does these removable shoe lifts!"

My eyes bugged out with excitement.  "Oh, my God!  That is exactly what I am looking for!!"

"You definitely have to call him up.  He will let you know if he can or cannot work on the shoe and, when he does work on the shoe...well, you won't regret it.  He is a shoe genius!"

That night, I dived through my shoe collection.  I knew the next pair of shoes that I wanted worked on were work shoes.  Then, finally, I saw the old and inexpensive pair of Payless work shoes that were destined to be worked on next by this Tony fellow just up the road from me.  I placed them in a plastic bag and impatiently awaited for the next day to arrive so I could meet Tony and encounter this magical removable shoe lift option.  When I called Tony for directions to his repair store, he said in a heavy Italian accent over and over: "Right before 7 Eleven.  Store is right before 7 Eleven.  Maria, my wife, and I are before 7 Eleven." 

As soon as I saw the 7 Eleven, I parked there and then followed the numbers going down to track down Tony's Repair Shop.  Unlike the unease and uncertainty I felt with the leathered and weathered materials at the first shoe repair shop in Pleasantville, a big grin took over my face at the endless shoes tucked in cubby hole homes and materials and machinary all dedicated to shoes in Tony's Repair Shop.  Opera music boomed from the speakers.  I was sold.  I had found my Prince Charming Shoe Repair Man.  I blushed with thrill when I started to speak with this petite and yet pleasantly plump lady with soft tufts of white and gray hair, wire-rimmed glasses, and warm blue eyes about my friends recommending Tony to me.  Maria was this sweet woman's name.

She nodded and smiled gently, but then said loudly: "Tony, come here!  Look at these shoes!  See if you can work on them!"

Around turned this bald-headed and small gentleman who was around my height and in work clothes.  I had never met a man around my height.  I was intrigued. Tony shuffled awkwardly to the counter.  I smiled at him, but he barely acknowledged me.  Rather, his worked hands gingerly touched my black work shoes from Payless.  He held them like the more precious treasures ever imagineable.  He disappeared to this wheeled machine in the back of the store that was still visible to everyrone.  I impatiently waited for the verdict about a removable lift being placed on the left shoe.

Tony shuffled back slowly to me again, shook his head, and said in his thick Italian accent: "No.  Bottoms of shoes are plastic.  Not good material.  I waste your money and time to work on this.  Find another pair of shoes."

Shocked and bewildered, I could not believe that there was nothing he could do to these shoes.  Maria sensed my disappointment and shock.  She said: "Tony no lie.  If he can't work on, then he can't work on.  Perhaps find another pair and we go from there."

"I just can't believe that nothing can be done with these shoes," I protested.

"No lying.  Find another pair with better material like leather or rubber and will do a good job," Tony said with a crooked smile. 

I walked back to my car in the sticky heat.  I should have known that Payless Shoes would not work.  That night, I went through all my shoes again.  I absolutely knew that I had to have work shoes lifted as the weather was going to soon turn cold and I spent most of my time at work where physical shoe adjustment had to begin. 

A couple weeks ago, my sister and I had shopped at DSW and I bought a pair of Clark's work shoes, but I was hesitant to have them changed or modified at all because they were such new shoes and nothing that I wanted to throw out like I wanted to eventually throw out the Payless shoes. 

But, then, I reasoned as I held the brand new Clark's shoes in my hands: A removable lift will be added on to the left work shoe, so I was not going to have to eventually throw out these shoes.  I nodded with determination.

A couple days later, I returned to Tony and Maria.  

"Remember me?" I asked.

They nodded.  I took out the original packaged box that the shoes were still in.  I removed the cover and Tony and Maria peered in like little children with wide eyes.  Tony took out one of the shoes and went to the back at the wheeled machine again.  I was holding my breath in anticipation.  

Tony walked back to me, broke out into a smile, and said: "Yes, most possible.  Yes, can do." 

I exhaled and made an agreement with Tony and Maria that I would return a week later to pick up the finished left shoe with the removable lift.  The week is up.  Tomorrow is the day I pick up my left Clark's work shoe.  Tomorrow is the day that I hope my Cinderella Shoe Complex will be complete and fully fulfilled.  And, tomorrow is the day of beginnings of adjustment and preparation for my hip replacement surgery that looms in the very near future.  Here is to tomorrow.

Keep smilin' until we meet again,

Mary :-)