Thursday, May 26, 2011

Jill Andreotti Buys Her 21st Pair

We wanted to do a follow-up to the January post on Jill.
Jill's plantar fascitis began when she was 20 years old. Her heel pain was relentless. She says, "I was on crutches for years and years." Her symptoms began after wearing inappropriate shoes while playing sports- softball, basketball, tennis, and more.
For the next 10 years she had tried electrodes and different medicine for her feet.
When she was 30 years old she came to see Dr. Kerch. As mentioned in the January article, she successfully underwent shockwave therapy. She was among the first in Seattle to wear the Z-CoiL pain relief shoes in 2003. She wears the Z-CoiL shoes "all the time" except for weddings (rarely a pump). She even wears the Z-CoiLs playing tennis.
Jill has worked as a medical technologist for the past 20 years. This occupation has allowed her a flexible lifestyle. She has chosen to live in Seattle working at Harborview and at Children's UW for awhile. She went to Portland for a time and is currently living in Yakima. Jill is excited to be in her second semester at WSU to get her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, graduating as a RN+.
Jill is an amazing success story and advocate for the Z-CoiL shoes. She has 21 pairs of Z-COiL now. Today she purchased the new Bella style.
She likes to have many different styles in order to be ready for her diverse activities. After all these years her gray Zuecos need to be replaced. She also owns two pairs of Mary Janes (grey and black). She has 7 pairs of clogs in 3 different colors. She owns a pair of boots and several athletic Freedom styles.
When folks ask her about the shoes she says, "They saved my life. I might still be on crutches if it wasn't for the shockwave therapy and the Z-CoiL footwear."

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Margaret East Finds Cancer Pain Relief With Z-CoiLs

Margaret East was referred to Your 2 Feet from her podiatrist Dr. Ichikawa. She was suffering from Achilles tendinitis, bone spurs on both Achilles, and knee problems. She's had 5 knee soft tissue bursae removals, and plica membrane syndrome in both knees four years ago. The resulting arthritis was limiting her activities and reducing her quality of life.
When Margaret started wearing the Z-CoiL shoes she felt they saved her from being limited to a wheelchair.
Margaret E. bought her first pair of Z-CoiLs three years ago. She purchased the black Taos Clog. Although she liked the easy access in and out of the shoes, she wanted the shoe to be more secure to her foot when she was walking. She did a clever modification to her black taos clog to make it more secure to her foot. She bought a velcro strap from a hardware store to apply over the top of the shoe. This converted her clog to function more like a Mary Jane type of shoe.
The Taos Clog style has advantages at the airport because of easy removal at security. She has had to make frequent trips to the cancer clinic which requires her to slip her shoes off every day to be weighed. Last year she bought two pairs of sandals for the same reason.

Since January of 2008 Margaret has been undergoing chemotherapy for late stage ovarian cancer. Fortunately she is currently in remission with the use of anti-estrogen drugs.
Margaret is a volunteer this year at the Marsha Rivkin Ovarian Cancer Research Center summer run (associated with Swedish Hospital). This annual fundraiser is July 24. For more information please visit their website at www.summerun.org. Margaret invites you to join her team "Musical Margaret".

Margaret has a wealth of information on what causes cancer. I did some research on paraneoplastic syndrome that she mentioned. For more information on how this affects the proteins in your blood which causes joint pain, etc. you can review wikipedia for starters:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraneoplastic_syndrome. Chemotherapy apparently slows down some of these processes, but she still has joint pain and dizziness.
Because of the dizziness she gets from the chemotherapy, Margaret decided to invest in the covered coils. This avoids the tripping hazard around cables and cords. She also likes the look of the enclosed coils. At this most recent visit she bought the Taos Clog strap with the enclosed coils.
When people approach her asking about the Z-CoiL's she's happy to share her experience with them. " The Z-CoiL shoes saved me from a wheelchair. The shoes reduce the impact so I don't get the pain in my heels and knees. The pain used to keep me from walking. Now, wearing the Z-CoiL shoes, I can walk one mile. When I went to Disneyworld, I walked 8 hours a day two weeks ago wearing the Z-CoiL sandal."
The women tell her the sandals are so cute-where did you get them? She tells them about Your 2 Feet. We are located at the bottom of Capital Hill, 1201 Pine St. Seattle 98101. 206-838-7338.
We are so grateful for patrons like Margaret. Her story is so heartwarming. We are proud to have contributed in any way to providing her pain relief.