Debbie Perkins

I’m a retired pharmacy technician. I moved up to the state of Washington in 1977 from the state of Oregon. I became a pharmacy technician in 1995. I retired from the hospital in 2016. I’m a new retiree, still learning how to be retired. I have two children, a son and daughter, and dog and 4 grandkids. We’ve been married for 44 years.

I have a lot of arthritis in my body, I had bunion surgery on both my feet. My parents had feet problems too. I would go to work in the mornings and my feet would hurt really bad, surgery helped but didn’t take care of alignment further up the leg. I would hurt so bad. I saw an ad on FB for it, most ads lead you to other stuff and they want your money, I looked up how much it was, I saw testimonials and they said you had a 90 day guarantee and you could get your money back. I read the testimonials again, because my feet and legs hurt so bad and I’m on my feet and legs all the time at work, I thought, well I’m going to try it.

They said you could cut it down to fit your shoes, I thought if you alter you can’t return it, I was on chat and asked about that, the final thing that made me decide was they said even if I did cut them down, I could still send them back. I ordered them and put them in. I didn’t cut them down because I only wanted one pair of insoles for every shoe, I wasn’t going to buy multiple, unless I knew they worked, I put them in, and we left town for the weekend.

By the time we got to where we were going I could tell they were making a difference. I could feel a tremendous difference in the way my legs felt, they didn’t feel like I couldn’t walk anymore, I used to think I wish I could just walk from the store to the car without feeling like I couldn’t walk, so I ordered another pair, and they said I could have another 90 days. They said, I might get used to them and not have to break them in. I’ve had them since February and they had worked just as well and I haven’t had to replace them. 90 days is three months, that’s a long time, I thought even if I bought my second pair, if my first pair quit working, I still had a lot of time to send them back if need be, when you think about your feet and all the money you’ve spent already, another $70 is a lot of money, I’ve already spent a ton of money in orthotics.

I was really pleased with how they worked. I’ve tried a couple different orthotics, it’s quite a bit of money, but when you’re determined it doesn’t matter. I bought those, and they would work on one foot and not the other, seemed like they wouldn’t line up on the arch, it seemed like they were made for the same foot. My left foot worked well, but the right foot couldn’t so it made my foot hurt worse. Protalus aligned to me instead of my trying to align to what’s been made, that helped a lot. I can now walk without pain.

I didn’t realize it before, my sister in law told me she was watching me, and I had an angle to my back, instead of standing up straight I was U shaped and I was always leaning to the back. I was hoping it would help, but I also started doing Yoga and the Protalus together helped me align itself the way I was supposed to be. When I had the bunion surgery, my feet hurt really bad. Going to work in the morning they would hurt so bad. But then it got to the point my legs were hurting as well. I would have good days and bad days, I would be at work then I would have to find a place to sit down because they hurt so bad. It’s been long enough now that I don’t even remember that hurt because I wear the Protalus inserts all the time. I can’t even describe to you the pain anymore because it doesn’t hurt like that, it’s all gone away. I didn’t realize it was an alignment issue, until I got the insoles and realized the difference between an orthotic and an insole and what Protalus does, that it aligns my foot all the way up. I don’t conform to the insole, it conforms to me.