My second toe is longer than my first toe. I considered this to be a perfectly normal phenomenon and never gave it a second thought - until a few nights ago.
My wife and were lying on the couch watching Shallow Hal on DVD. Jason Alexander’s character was dating a beautiful girl, but decided to dump her because “she was a freak of nature”. Yes, she had the dreaded elongated second toe.
My wife looked down at her toes. In the background, you could hear the angels singing, for God had blessed her with nearly perfect toes. They formed some kind of miniature, symmetric stairway to heaven.
Then we looked at my feet, at which point she began laughing uncontrollably. My second toe is noticeably longer than my so called "big" toe. This caused me concern, and I decided to use my favorite method of researching health ailments – google.
I found that I have something called Morton’s Toe. It is a condition where the first joint of your second toe is higher than the joint on your first toe. This usually also means the second toe is longer, but not necessarily. It is a fairly common ailment. As someone with this ailment walks, their weight transfers from the heel to the second toe. In a normal person, the weight is equally distributed between the first and second toe. The second toe can’t handle all this pressure, so the weight gets distributed in abnormal ways. This can cause problems like extreme soreness in the balls of the feet, especially when standing for long hours.
You can see a podiatrist if you’re having problems. The best non-surgical method of relieving foot pain is by purchasing a comfortable pair of shoes specifically designed for this ailment.