Bad Shoes!

Like many nurses, the search for the “perfect” shoe has been an ongoing adventure for me. Most of the time, I try new shoes, they end up hurting and I switch with little or no fallout…except for the time my shoes completely embarrassed me AND hindered my nursing.

I’d bought some clogs that were expensive but everyone was wearing them and raving about how comfortable they were. I should have known there’d be problems when, on my first night sporting them, my feet felt like they were caught in some kind of restrictive leather vise. Plus I felt like I was towering on stilts—I rose from a tall 5’9 to a towering 5’11.  I felt like a giant with really heavy and sore feet.

An hour into my shift, my feet were absolutely throbbing. My co-workers continued to reassure me that I just needed to “break them in.” I was skeptical but not willing to throw in towel after spending 120 bucks.

Then, at about 3AM, one of our emergency call lights when off. The room in question was 10 rooms away from where I was stationed at a desk–with my feet propped up. There was a real problem happening in that room, so I bolted out of my swivel chair and proceeded to run down the hall, anticipating a crash c-section. Coming towards me was one of the new 1^st year intern guys—he was shorter than me, thinner than me, and obviously not aware that he should be running towards the room as well.

The moment I reached his side, my feet twisted sideways on the shoe heels and I toppled over. In slow-motion, I sprawled out on the floor, taking the intern down with me. In an attempt to right myself, I stomped hard on one of his hands with the rock-solid heel of my shoes. He yelped, which halted the progress of two other residents on their way to the emergency. We hoisted up off the floor and then everyone ran off without me. Yanking off the offending shoes with an oath, I found a twisted and swelling ankle to compliment my poor plantars.

That resident never really spoke to me again and I NEVER wore those shoes again. In fact, I just found those dang clogs on my closet floor in their box and have successfully listed them on Ebay in “near-new” condition. Good luck to their new owners!