I just had a big blow-up with my dad. As usual, it was about something pretty stupid – I mean, stupid in terms of issues to have a shouting match about. Clearly, I’m in the right, so it’s completely nonsensical to argue about it.
In short, my dad has been complaining of heel pain for weeks, but he flatly refuses to see his usual podiatrist close to Cheltenham. He also refuses to drive outside of the local area for fear of getting a fine, given stage 4 lockdown protocol. Every time I see him, the first thing he brings up is this heel pain business, so I finally asked him what the problem is with his usual podiatrist. This is where it gets really silly.
It seems that the guy has told my dad in the past that he needs arch support in the form of orthotics, and my dad is having none of it. Why? It beats me, but from what I can gather it’s something to do with my dad’s belief that only the elderly wear arch support footwear, and that it’s a sure sign of one’s life force being on its last legs. Given that my dad is pushing 80, I think it’s fair to say that he is getting onto the spectrum of being elderly. Still, that notwithstanding, I don’t know where he gets the idea that only people past a certain age wear orthotics. I myself wore them as a child!
Evidently, adult orthotics are somehow different in my dad’s eyes. He couldn’t really explain the logic of that to me, and I’m confident there isn’t any. He’s just being bull-headed as usual. This is typical of my dad, to struggle through a potentially treatable malady on the basis of a flawed belief, which he probably knows is flawed but doesn’t want to back down on.
The more I pressed him to go to the podiatrist, the more stubborn he became about it, finally accusing me of trying to put him in an early grave. What rubbish! If anything, I’m trying to help keep him mobile for longer.
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