Friday Foto: Crazy Feet!

I posted this image on both my Twitter and Facebook account, and am contemplating if it will be a part of a refresher I will be doing to my About page.  It’s *that* photo of my foot and my sister’s foot.

My foot is on the left – noted by the fading round mark by the heel which was the hole my orthotics created at the Egmond Quarter Marathon.

We took this shot while fooling around during a photo shoot – my sister is a portrait photographer, check out her work at Mau Loa Photography if you are in the South Florida area.  We were saying how we should take a picture of our crazy feet.  We both have CMT, and have hypermobility, so our feet have high arches, and are a little more flexible than a “typical” foot.

Someone asked what the odds are that we would both have the same conditions. 

1 in 2500 people have CMT
1 in 5 people have hypermobility

So each of us has a 1 in 12,500 chance of having both CMT and hypermobility.
And a 1 in 156,250,000 chance of both of us having both conditions, looking at stand alone statistics not considering genetics.

But when we consider the hereditary nature of both conditions…

CMT1A (our subtype) is an autosomal dominant gene, meaning only one parent needs to have it to pass it on, so we have a 1 in 2 chance of having CMT. 
And although I am genetically ignorant about hypermobility syndrome, I believe that this too expressed itself through autosomal dominance in our family, so another 1 in 2 probability.
A 1 in 4 chance for us to have both conditions.
A 1 in 16 chance for both of us to have both conditions. 

Societally rare, maybe, but all in the family, really!  We don’t mind if you prefer to see us as unique. 

Hopefully you now understand a bit more about my comments on my crazy feet, and how they are the root cause of so many issues.