Pushing Through the Pain!

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about hurting my foot and how I was going to be adjusting my work out routine to compensate for the pain. I thought it was time for an update on my progress, in case anyone was curious. Despite my best efforts to stay off my foot as much as possible, wearing better shoes, and doing as much as I can to stay away from exercise that puts a lot of pressure on my foot, my pain has not subsided at all. My goal has been to get the pain to stop in time for the Cherry Blossom 10 miler so that I am still able to go out and run it with my family; but now I am less than two months away from the race, and I have not seen any changes. I decided it was high time to go see a Podiatrist and get yet another opinion.

Tuesday morning I went to go talk to a foot specialist, and I showed him the X-rays that I had taken a couple of months ago. The first thing he said was that my dad was right on his diagnosis of sesamoiditis (go dad!). Looking at all the X-rays from all points of view, he also mentioned that the bones in my feet were very oddly shaped, in that they curved a little more than they are supposed to, and my large metatarsal bone is smaller than it should be; all contributing factors to my pain. There\’s not a lot I can do about the size of my bones, but he did give me several suggestions that would help me ease the pain. First, he checked out the shoes I had worn into the office, shoes that I had specifically bought because I thought they would give my feet some good support, but he told me otherwise. He said they were much too flimsy and didn\’t provide support in the right areas, so it looks like there will be lots of shoe shopping in my near future. He also mentioned that I need to wear SOMETHING on my feet at all times even at home, because walking around barefoot isn\’t good for my feet. This I don\’t like, because if it was up to me, I would go everywhere barefoot. The first thing I do when I get home after a long day of work is kick my shoes off, and it’s now Nate\’s official job to get after me if he catches me going around without shoes. 

Another suggestion the doctor had was to give me a steroid injection in my foot to see if that would help with the pain at all. I\’ve had one of these injections in my hip before, and I felt that it had helped me then, so I figured, what the heck? Why not try it. I just didn\’t like that I had so little time to mentally prepare myself for a shot in my foot! Luckily, he froze my foot with liquid nitrogen before he gave me the shot, so I didn\’t feel it as much. My foot has been pretty sore from the shot, but I am starting to feel a difference in the pain level. He wants to give me one more injection next week to see if these really knock out the pain; but if they don\’t, then I will have to get orthotics for my feet. I am hopeful that these shots will help, and that I can get my foot feeling back to normal really soon.

Finally, exercise wise, the doctor did say I could keep exercising regularly, but he told me what I needed to avoid until my foot was healed. For now, still no running 🙁 nothing that requires getting on my toes, so yoga and lunges and those kinds of exercises are out of the question; and he agreed that if I am going to keep swimming, I need to try my best to push off the wall with as little pressure to my right foot as possible. He also said diving should be avoided because it puts a lot of weight right where it hurts; so it\’s a good thing I am not planning to compete anytime in the near future. I\’m very glad that he encouraged me to keep exercising and gave me more pointers on how to avoid putting pressure on my foot, rather than telling me to take it easy for a while. Because let\’s be honest, I would have found a way to break that rule, I can\’t sit still that long! 

So, for now I just need to continue being patient and not push myself too hard. Being patient has never been one of my strengths, so it will definitely continue to be a challenge for me while I wait for my foot to get better; but I am very hopeful that these injections will help and I’ll be well on my way again soon.

For others going through injuries as well, remember this doesn’t have to be an excuse to quit exercising! Obviously, adjustments can be made to avoid hurting yourself further, but there is no real excuse to quit working on your health. Continue to be patient, allow yourself to get better, and then go back at it like there’s no tomorrow. It’s easier said than done, but it’s not impossible! Like my dad has been saying in his blog, sometimes certain injuries allow you to tap into other forms of exercise that you normally would never have done otherwise. My dad hates swimming, but he did a lot of it while he was working through his stress fracture, and even though he still thinks it sucks, it has gotten much easier for him since he has been doing it more often. I’ve been doing a lot of elliptical and walking, but I might try to get on the bike more often, even though I don’t like it. Now is the time to give it a try since I can’t run. Whatever it may be, use this time to get out there and try something new, but don’t stop moving!

Until Next Time! 🙂

Megan Reiffenberger