HEEL WARS Chapter 3

It felt like the longest sleep ever and very difficult to open my eyes. I could feel severe headaches and chills all over my body. The air I was breathing wasn’t fresh, much more like breathing from a life support.

I opened my eyes and everything looked very blur. It was very difficult to carry myself up or even talk. I moved my hand and it touched someone. “Oh no, Richard is still here”, I thought. I opened my eyes, where am I? The room didn’t look like my room.

Richard quickly woke up and sounded so happy. He told me to relax and went out of the room. I was lost and confused. Tried to get out of the bed and I realized I had a drip on me with all sort of small cables on my chest and at my back. THE HOSPITAL?

Richard came back with a doctor who did a thorough check up on me and administered injections and also changed my drip dose. When he left, I asked Richard what happened and how long I have been at the hospital. “You fainted in my arms”, he said. “I rushed you to the hospital and you have been unconscious for three days”, he added. He picked his phone and called my mum that I was finally up. I thought, three days was so long. After some few minutes, the doctor came back. I asked him what was wrong with me and I got quite a shocking response.

He asked, “Do you wear heels and how often do you wear? “Yes Sir, I wear heels almost everyday, the only time I don’t wear heels is when I’m sleeping”, I answered. I was very scared of what next he was going to say. He said, “Madam you have a disease called osteoarthritis”. It is a joint disease or “wear and tear” arthritis, most common chronic condition of the joints. It occurs when the cartilage or cushion between joints breaks down leading to pain, stiffness and swelling and pain. “It has affected your hips and knees”, he added.

I started crying, I couldn’t bare the pain and the fact that I wasn’t going to wear heels for six months after the surgery and also reduce wearing heels for the rest of my life.

Richard was helpful throughout the six months of no heels. He used to tease me a lot and also had the keys to my shoe closet. The first few months wasn’t easy for me. I felt awkward wearing flat shoes to work everyday. I looked short and down like an SHS student.

After six months, Richard opened my closet and the room looked dead with all my shoes dusty. I used the weekend to clean them up and went back to my routine of wearing my best friends again.

Wearing heels or not is a choice everybody needs to make on their own. It can make you feel confident, bossy, powerful, feminine and so on but you have to also consider your life and the side effects it can bring to you. I always wore heels but my ordeal thought me things in another perspective. 

There is a saying that “Beauty is pain”, but never let the pain take your life.

Come to think of it, I feel pretty good wearing flat shoes and sandals mixed up with my heel collection. I feel healthy and better. 

THE END.

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