Hallux Valgus

So, I'll be sitting for my OSCEs exam come this Wednesday.
OSCEs are those annoying exams (actually crucial) that tests our clinical examination skills and history taking (that is eliciting a proper history of symptoms from a patient), which are in actual fact the bread and butter of our profession. And yes, they have to make an exam out of it, which I again totally understand But It is Still after all, an Exam.

To make sure we absolutely score, and NOT fail as NO one wants to come back to resit the exams when we can all be kicking back and eating char kuey teow in Malaysia while flipping through the twenty plus Astro channels while ordering our maids for another round of grilled satay,
we practice
and practice
and practice
AND practice
on each other.

Which brings us to a few new discoveries. So I've found out that one of my flatmates cannot externally rotate his shoulders. And a friend who lives upstairs has got a fixed flexion deformity of her elbow, which is also called a 'gunshot' deformity (basically means one cannot fully rotate one's wrist when the arm is fully outstretched). A splitting of a friend's 2nd heart sound is also heard (normal sounds should be just lub-dub, and a splitting means lub-d-dub). And of course, I've got a fantastic knee to be examined due to my past surgery but that is really rather old news.

Still, I will be incomplete and totally ostracized if I do not discover something new or rather, medically wrong about myself - and thank God for all the smart alecks and brainy people that exist around me. One single look - zero in and hey! another case to add on to my already expanding portfolio of medical problems that surely points towards the one direction -> AGEING.



I've got hallux valgus. Sounds like some Harry Potter enchantment, no?

A change of direction of my big toe which should normally be straight but is slanted, leaving an empty V in between the big toes of me both feet. Slight, but there all the same. It might be congenital though, or hereditary. And how does it happen? All time popular cause is the usage of heels (that's why women get it and men hardly) but hello, I stay in cobblestone Edinburgh where even walking down the stairs of my flat is treacherous. Not to mention planting my stilletos on the uneven pavement of the city as I walk 2 miles to my destination, precariously mantaining balance while tripping over every other step and ensuring that I still look feminine?
No, I hardly wear heels here!!

But I do have about 7 pairs of high heeled shoes sitting on my shelf now.
So?
Ignorance is bliss. And so is self denial.