Would you walk in my shoes?

2-25-2023

Would you walk in my shoes?

He was only in his late 50’s. He walked very slowly with a slight limp. The pain was evident with each step he took as he approached our exam area. He started telling me about all the years of working up in the mountains harvesting coffee and working in the fields; something he can no longer do. Now he tries to find other work when he can. He has chronic back pain with pain that radiates down one leg. Leg cramps are a daily event. His legs are thin and calf muscles proportionally large due to his years of climbing the mountain daily to pick coffee beans. He had little income to pay for new shoes/sandals much less medicine to alleviate his suffering. He spoke of how much he walked daily to do what work he could and how that caused muscle cramping, pain in his legs and back.

As I was doing his exam, I couldn’t help but notice how worn his sandals were. He walked in these daily. One of the sandals had the back strap broken off. He held his sandals on with a thin piece of blue ribbon, the kind most of us use to wrap gifts.

Here I am wearing a nice pair of running shoes. My feet are comfortable with every step I take. I couldn’t imagine how much foot pain his wore out sandals caused him. I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to be in so much pain every day.

We gave him some Prednisone and Ibuprofen for his back pain and leg pain in hopes of easing his suffering for a while. He was so grateful.

But as I stared at his broken sandal held together by a thin little piece of ribbon, I asked myself: Would I walk in his shoes? Would I be able to walk miles in a wore out broken pair of sandals?

-Nancy Linder