CUSTOM FOOT ORTHOTICS BY SHAWN ENO OF XTREME FOOTWERKS
(Idaho Springs, Colorado)
My website has a lot of space devoted to Chronic Pain. I know a thing or two about Chronic Pain not simply because I have dealt with Chronic Pain Patients on a daily basis for well over two decades, but because I have experienced it personally. You see, many years ago, I had actually told my wife that I was ready to have my right foot amputated. I would come home from work and collapse in a heap. I had always hoped to practice until I was a very old man, but I was wondering how I was going to get thru the next day. My foot was ALWAYS ON MY MIND.
Having been an athlete my whole life and playing a lot of basketball, I have seriously torn up my ankles. Three different times I have had casts on my ankles because of Avulsion Fractures. Shortly after getting married in 1996, I started developing pain in my right foot that was not PLANTAR FASCIITIS. Over a period of about 6-8 years, the pain became almost unbearable. I would come home from work and simply collapse. I could not do any form of lower body exercise whatsoever because it would trigger the pain. And on top of it all, I was developing PIRIFORMIS PAIN — no hardcore Sciatica, but lots of buttock pain.
Because I get solicited by companies that want me to sell their orthotics, I have tried them all. I literally have a black trash bag in the basement of my clinic that contains dozens upon dozens of orthotics that did nothing for me. Then, by and act of God, I met Shawn. SHAWN ENO was teaching at a seminar in Branson that I was attending, and I struck up a conversation. He told me that he could help me, and I must say that he was pretty convincing. Shawn cast me for a pair of orthotics, and while there was a change, it was certainly not what I was hoping to see. Shawn had told me that because my foot was so rigid and my arch so high, I needed a special kind of orthotic for my foot type.
I spent a weekend in Kansas City with him at his parents house, and then he spent a couple days at my clinic. Although the results were a bit cruder than the work he does now, the difference was immediate and amazing. Shawn and I have become fast friends. Because Shawn is a person who is always learning and trying new ideas, I have been out to see Shawn in Colorado two times to have new orthotics built. My day-to-day pain is about 1/10th of what it was in 1999. And while I still cannot do certain things without stirring up old ghosts (lower body weightlifting, and as crazy as it sounds, riding a bike) I can walk, hike, and work without pain.
Although we have a great line of Generic Orthotics that we sell for between 50 and 60 bucks, you might require something more. Although I have been through Shawn’s 12 hour casting course and do some custom orthotic work, there are certain foot types that I just don’t mess with. The most common of these is the foot like mine — the high arched rigid foot. If this is your foot type and you are struggling like I was, I will suggest that you fly out to Denver to see Shawn personally in his clinic.
