A depressing visit to the podiatrist

Last year I suffered from some tendinitis in my right ankle. I went to physical therapy for about four months and managed to control the pain enough to get my workouts in and bust my goal for the New York City triathlon. After that, I stopped running and took some time off, hoping it would finally cure my ailments.

Now that I've been ramping up running again, I can say with authority that the pain in my ankle has not disappeared. In fact, it's spread to my other leg. It hasn't been debilitating, but the first 10 or 15 minutes of every run really suck.

Then, a few weeks ago, my big toe joint on my left foot started giving my grief. On the girlfriend's goading I made a doctor's appointment. I had a feeling my ankle problems were the product of falling arches, but I hadn't a clue what was causing the toe joint issue. The doctor told me to take a Motrin after each meal and referred me to a podiatrist.

The podiatrist x-rayed my foot with the ailing toe joint. He also measured the flexibility of my big toes by pushing them backward which, on my sore toe, hurt like hell. I actually felt like it was going to break. It turns out I had about half the range of motion I should on that toe. He thought I must have jammed it or something, but there also is a structural problem. My feet are bony, is basically my diagnosis. So bony, in fact, that my toe joints are ramming painfully against my shoes with every step, and there's not a thing that's going to change that. Great.

Even better, the ankle/falling arches issue can be resolved with $450 orthotics which my insurance doesn't cover. Awesome.

I didn't make an appointment to get orthotics yet. I might try a cheaper insert first. The girlfriend also did some research about my toe ailment and has prescribed fish oil supplements for me.

Two days after this really depressing visit, I went for a record-breaking 1.5 hr run. It actually felt really great with very little pain. Go figure. For now, I'm going to press on doing two runs a week and seeing if perhaps the elliptical wouldn't be a good substitute for one run a week. After that, maybe I'll just work on popularizing the sport of aquathons!