Please bear with me if you think you can help! It gets a little long...
So back in gradeschool, I went to a shoe repair store that my mom got help at after her feet hurt from improper footwear. The whole reason I went was just growing pains, I’m pretty sure. However, the custom inserts he built for me helped mitigate the pain and I continued going to the store for inserts throughout highschool. He built a special pair of inserts for me during my time as a competitive cross country runner, which seemed to fit well and felt natural at the time (there was different support for each foot, because my shoes wore differently/unevenly. Example: my left foot pronated slightly, so he built a sort of “bowl” to stabilize my ankle underneath the insert with a hard, foam like substance ). However, during and after the season of running my foot became slowly misshaped in a way, and I feel the repair man at the shoe store caused the whole process. I tried to go back and tell him, but when I did he seemed to understand and built me a new pair which I wore for a while, which only made it WORSE!!! And when I said “to hell with this, I’ll see a professional” I got my feet molded, inserts made accordingly, and wore those for a month, that made it even worse.. all the while my left knee, back, and the arch of my left foot have been hurting. Can anyone give advice?? I’m at a loss, and it is truly a stressful thing. Walking uncomfortably and unnaturally is a hard thing to ignore. I just wish I hadn’t gotten any inserts in the first place, but it’s too late for that now