Shoes, the bane of my existence

Forty plus years ago, I was hit by a speeding car while riding my bicycle across a busy intersection. The resulting injury was a shattered left femur that put me in traction in the hospital for several months, and then I was sent home in a cast from my waist to my toes for several more months. Eventually I learned to walk again and after a little over a year, I had regained most of my strength and range of motion (this was well before the days of physical therapy). I was told when my cast was removed that I would have a length discrepancy of my left leg of about an inch or so but that my spine could compensate for such a thing, so I went about my business, graduated from High School and college, started a career, and around my early 30's, I began experiencing the first symptoms of my body trying to tell me that something wasn't right. My left knee began to bother me in the fall of 1989 and by spring of 1990, it became apparent that I would need to seek medical attention. That ended up leading to a six month stint in physical therapy, but I made an eventual recovery and went about my business. Unfortunately, that didn't last forever. In late 1997 I began to develop severe pain in my left hip, but it being winter, I assumed that it was just arthritis and that it would go away come spring. But it didn't. In point of fact, it worsened as the months wore on. So once again, in the spring of 1998, I sought medical attention. I was diagnosed with an inch and a half discrepancy of my left leg, which shocked me that it was so profound and severe. The specialist to whom I had been sent was able to build up my left shoe with a lift, which felt extremely weird to suddenly be standing an inch and a half taller. But I knew that I was even and within a short period, the hip pain was gone, and that made me very happy.

     Fast forward to the current day: My two sisters are serious shoe mavens. They have the most beautiful shoes, and the unfortunate thing is that I cannot wear them. In the ensuing years since being diagnosed with the length discrepancy, I have become infuriatingly aware of the limitation that it puts on the shoes I would love to wear. I am, unfortunately, limited to sturdy sensible shoes and can no longer wear pretty feminine shoes. This, of course, means that I can no longer dress up and have to either avoid situations that call for fairly formal dress or show up casual and apologize for doing so because I can't wear the appropriate attire due to shoe limitations. It's distressingly frustrating to have to limit not just my footwear, but also my entire wardrobe. Wearing baggy slacks to hide my sturdy sensible shoes is about the only answer I can come up with as to how to dress, but I dislike walking around looking as if I am dressed in a tent because I have to hide my not so attractive clunky shoes. I'd much rather dress in nice shoes and an attractive wardrobe. But alas, that is off limits to me, so I don't go out much if it means having to dress a certain way. Short of having surgery to shorten my good leg, something I've sometimes considered doing just to be even again, I guess I just have to accept that my shoes and clothing can never be terribly attractive. So I end up looking like the ugly duckling when my two sisters visit. They have beautiful clothes and shoes.....and I don't....and can't. What I wouldn't do to not be stuck with this limitation, caused by a careless moment as an adolescent. Oh, well, in a few years I will be retired, so I guess it won't matter much, at least when I am dressing for work. If only I could find one really nice, feminine pair of shoes that I could have adapted for my needs.....yeah, dream on........