I’ve never been a prima donna when it comes to the way I look. Even as a teenager, I don’t recall needing to buy everything I saw in Seventeen Magazine. Perhaps the fact that I went to a Catholic high school that required wearing a uniform kept my sense of fashion to a minimum.

When I first realized I had bunions, I looked up to see what causes them. I laughed out loud when I read that most bunions are caused by wearing inappropriate shoes with very high heels and very pointed toes. The reason I laughed is because I’ll bet I haven’t worn high heeled shoes more than a dozen times in my entire life. I wore them at my two weddings, I wore them at our children’s weddings. But even as a professional in the work world, I always preferred comfortable, flat shoes.

I remember that I worked with an older woman many moons ago. (And I’m laughing even as I write those words because she probably was 40 years old to my 23.) She always wore very high heeled shoes. At lunchtime, she would go for a walk in those very same shoes. I asked her one time how on earth she could go for a walk wearing such seemingly uncomfortable shoes. She declared that she had been wearing high heeled shoes since she was a teenager, and her feet were such that at that point, she was more comfortable in those shoes than in a pair of flats.

I wonder if she ended up with bunions.

Years later, I worked with a woman who was inordinately tall and absolutely beautiful. She always wore high heels. She would swoop into a room smelling like expensive fragrance and dressed to the nines, proudly towering over most people in the room. As part of the communications team with whom I worked, I often had to accompany her to meetings. I felt like her dopey kid sister.

I wonder if she ended up with bunions.

Second runner up as a cause for bunions is the feet of your ancestors. Many times, bunions are hereditary, and mine were. My mother had terrible feet that included bunions and corns. Along with her blue eyes and the shape of her mouth, she also passed along bum feet to her second-born. Aren’t I lucky?

With one bunion fixed and one to go (maybe, some day, if I’m willing to go through this again), I assure you there will be no high heels on my feet. In fact, I’m told by those who have gone through similar surgery that it will probably be three- to-six months or so before I can wear anything but a sandal due to swelling. I will admit that the two times I have been able to glance at my repaired foot since the surgery, it not only looks like Frankenstein’s monster, but it also looks like a pregnant whale.

Good thing I’m not a prima donna when it comes to fashion.