"A pair of flip-flops gave me my life back!"

After a misdiagnosis, Ronda Taylor spent years enduring severe foot pain. Struggling through each day, she began to lose hope of ever finding a cure... until a surprising and fashionable! solution changed everything

- Monica Romano

Ronda Taylor had only worked half the day when she found herself in tears. “I have to go home. My feet hurt so bad,” the elementary school teacher cried, hobbling to her car. This pain is jeopardizing my career now, she lamented. What am I going to do?

For years, the then-52-year-old Louisiana resident had endured excruciating foot pain, which her rheumatologist had tied to her psoriatic arthritis. Yet, despite taking pain medicine and using frozen ice bottles beneath her feet at night, when Rhonda’s feet hit the floor in the morning, every step was like walking on broken glass.

For weeks, the pain persisted, and Ronda began to wonder if this wasn’t her arthritis after all. What could it be? she worried.

A comfy solution

Seeking a second opinion, Ronda found orthopedic surgeon and foot specialist Meredith Warner, M.D., who diagnosed her with plantar fasciitis, inflammation in the foot’s plantar fascia, the band of tissue stretching from the toes to the heel. Ronda learned the condition is common in people who are on their feet often, like she is, or people who have flat feet or high arches.