April is Foot Health Awareness Month, so we spoke with a local podiatrist about keeping your feet and ankles healthy as we head into spring and summer.
Dr. Scott Kochenower, a podiatrist at Comanche County Memorial Hospital, said your foot and ankle are a complex part of the body because there are several bones and ligaments that keep many people going every day.
“A lot of people see foot as not a big deal, but it’s huge in my opinion – especially when the patients come in having pain,” he said. “It affects your gait. It affects your daily activities. It affects your shoes. It affects your life in general. So, if we can keep people up and going and moving, then I think we’ve had a good result.”
He said he treats many people with diabetes and talks to them about checking their feet, not being barefoot, and warning signs they need to be aware of.
“A big problem we see,” said Kochenower, “especially in Southwest Oklahoma, is diabetes with peripheral artery disease – that’s where they have lack of blood flow or circulation – it can be related to smoking, age, there’s many other factors.”
Dr. Kochenower said they also do a lot of reconstructive procedures.
“We have a lot of military here, and they’re always out in the field rolling ankles or turning and twisting ankles, and sometimes those ligaments need to be tightened up, and we’ll do that,” he said. “There’s a lot of fracture care that we’ll treat, but probably our biggest surgical procedure right now is bunion corrective surgery.”
He said bunions typically come from a genetic component or are hereditary.
“Bunions is where the malalignment with the big toe joint, and there is a prominence,” Kochenower said. “Most people will think that they have a bump or something going on, so we’ll evaluate that, and there are surgical options that we do discuss with patients for bunions.”
Dr. Kochenower encourages people to wear good, supportive shoes but says people with no medical problems are ok to wear flip-flops or flat shoes – it just depends on their health.
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