PT appointment

need to get a weekend recap up yet today or tomorrow but I thought I would give the readers of my blog a quick summary of my visit to see the PT today.  I thought I was going in to be fitted for orthodics, but apparently they had a different idea.  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am glad to see them taking a wide view when trying to figure out my problems.  I just wasn’t expecting what I got today.  We didn’t even really discuss orthodics – I left with 3 more appointments for PT.  One more appointment this week to “get me ready” for my half this weekend and then two more next week to help me “recover.” 

Apparently, I have Morton’s toe.  If this had been a few months ago I would have been clueless as to what this meant, but my classmate brought up this condition in class not long ago so I at least knew what he was talking about.  Basically, this means that my second toe is longer than my big toe – I have obviously known this my whole life but didn’t realize it could cause problems.  It’s actually not the toe itself, but the bone in my foot – so the metatarsal that leads to my big toe is too short.  Apparently the morton’s toe combined with the fact that my forefoot is out of alignment with my heel creates a problem when I run.  Apparently my ankle is doing a lot of abnormal twisting and rotating when I run to account for my “flaws.”   He said that basically I am overstressing the muscles in my ankles and that is likely causing the problem.  The overstressing is also causing the muscles in my legs, ankles, and feet to tighten up since I don’t stretch like I should.

In addition, The PT thinks I am in the wrong running shoes so I need to go to the running store again to hopefully talk to Eric about that.   So, anyway, the “game plan” is to go in these next three visits and get the tightness worked out of the muscles in my lower leg, ankle, and foot.  Then of course I am supposed to look into new shoes and then at that point we will look at the possibility of orthodics to correct things if I am still having problems. 

Keep an eye out for my weekend and race recap in the next day or so... 

"Treatment" making things worse?

So, Monday my ankle was swollen and I went to the ortho and was given a boot.  I apologize in advance, this post is going to have several pictures of my gross feet!

Here is what my foot looked like on Monday - my left was slightly swollen but nothing too bad.

Then last night I noticed when I took my boot off to sleep (side note:  should I be sleeping in it?) my ankle was swollen like CRAZY.  I am also having ankle pain now that I am in the boot and the pain I went to the ortho for seems to be gone.  Strange indeed.  Anyway, here are some pictures of my ankle I took last night. 

View from the Front

View from the side, seriously.. who's ankle is this?!?!

View from the back

I called the doctors office this morning to ask if this was normal and was made to feel like a fool for calling.  I was told that its totally normal and is just a progression of the injury.  I was also informed I am no longer allowed to take NSAID painkillers (which is what she advised I should take) because if it is a stress fracture that will slow down healing.  They called in a prescription for Tramadol - and I am NOT loving the side effects of it.  Guess I will be toughing it out until next week. 

I may not post much between now and my MRI/follow-up, it will just depend on how I am feeling.  I may try to do a fun post about my weekend in Cincinnati though - so keep an eye out for that.  

Trying to stay positive, but I am terrified that this will end up being a stress fracture.  So, to my readers.. have you ever known someone with a stress fracture?  What was their healing like?   (Yes I know I am jumping the gun here, but I want to be prepared for the worst case scenario)