The clinical shoe dilemma

I'm a girl. I adore clothes. However I have a ridiculous problem with shoes, as my feet are so mutant they just don't fit into anything.

Well, okay, they aren't quite as bad as a chicken's foot. But I still like to complain about them.

Around the hospital we have to wear smart, clinical shoes. Considering we're on our feet all day these need to be fairly supportive. And because I care about how I look, I want them to have at least some resemblance of style.

Please no. Please don't make me.

We don't get to wear scrubs all day either. Scrubs are only worn by nurses (lucky ducks), or if you're on your ED rotation or in an operating theatre.

With long pants, I wear a nice pair of black patent Midas brogues. Stylish, comfortable, and closed in. Win-win-win. AND you can wear them with socks! Hurrah!

Unfortunately I can't wear them with skirts or dresses (unless I wear stockings). My skin is so ridiculously pale, my dearest-mother has informed me that I look like a middle aged German nanny with pale stocky legs and lace-up shoes. Hello boys.

Most other female medical students wear black ballet flats. It's a very elegant solution: they fit the closed in bill, they look professional, and places like Paul Carroll and Son, Ecco and Homy Peds make some nice pairs (hence supportive).

But remember how I said my feet were mutant? I literally can't wear ballet flats, unless I want this to happen:

Hot stuff.

They literally take the skin right off my feet. Even through band-aids, stockings and those little stocking footlets. It's especially bad during summer when my skin tends to get all hot, wet and soggy. Charming picture, no? 

I've spent hundreds of dollars on various pairs of shoes from all of those supportive shoe stores. I eventually decided that not being crippled was more important than looking decent (when you have a face like mine it's hard for anything to help you, really), and invested in a pair of $209 supportive-as-they-come shoes called Doris. Essentially grandma shoes.

There's no way that shoes as ugly supportive and padded as these could possibly give you blisters, even through stocking footlets and band-aids, right?

WRONG. These shoes are evil. They took the skin clean off my heel, toes and plantar aspect of my foot.  I couldn't walk for a week.

I guess I'm just going to have to stick with my $20 pair of sequinned flats. They're no better than walking around in bare feet, but at least they don't cripple me.