Someone asked about shoes. We had that problem with William's shoes
a few years back. He really is size 11, but we ended up with Gym Shoes,
New Balance, EEEEE (5 E's) and we tried everything, called everywhere.
The swelling has a lot to do with it for him - we have experimented with
different variations of medicines to keep the swelling down. I know
neurontin contributes to the swelling and some of the other stuff he
takes also contributes. (maybe baclofen just a bit).....The 13's weren't
even working until some guy told us to take out the sole and buy some in
a grocery (more of a flat insert)....that did the trick for him! We're
getting ready to need some new shoes pretty soon, so I don't
know.....what we'll do this time. I've seen a couple of ladies in wheel
chairs with great looking shoes. One girl I asked and she said they
were Reebok (sp?) but I don't know where they were ordered from. They
were a bigger size and had velcro. We tried several mocassin type
things, even a bootie from Kmart once, but they made the feet sweat, so
he finally gave up on those.....Anyway, we sure can understand the
problem. I think reducing his neurontin helped more than anything, but
don't do that without asking the Doctor. I'm not a Doctor. (smile)
By the way, William is doing very bad tonight. We had the hardest
Christmas day I ever saw. He has the transverse myelitis, and then also
just had radiation for prostate cancer. After 37 treatments, he quit,
and the side effects just set in really bad---bad bad diahrea and a lot
of pain and incontinence. It's almost unbearable.
For some reason, he tried Depends once and can't deal with them.
Please say a little prayer for him, okay? I know you all have
posted a lot of things and we haven't really answered or encouraged, but
we've been down at the Cancer Center. I'm going over there after while,
again, but by now he might have pushed his button to go off to the
hospital. It's really hard, here. Thanks.
Barb D. in Louisville