With visions (or delusions) of an eventual 5K race in my head, I began jogging at the end of April. I promptly felt a pain in my right foot, or ankle, or somewhere in there. So after a few days, I stopped jogging. Doggoneit, I was just getting the hang of it!
The pain wouldn't go away. I knew I'd done something, and it felt bonular. Yes, I made up that word. My amateur diagnosis: a stress fracture. I knew I should get it checked out, but I had the US National Conference coming at the beginning of June, and I didn't want to spend the convention hobbling around the hotel on crutches or with a cast. So for about six weeks, I endured the pain--which wasn't much, really; just a dull kind of very tolerable pain. Please, don't think me a hero.
The first day back from the conference, I called an orthopedic doctor recommended by Pam's stepmom, Ann. Anne is an avid runner, does marathons and such, and she knew this Dr. McManus because he's a marathoner. And because she's friends with the good doctor's wife. I got an appointment for this morning.
The thing is, I did some jogging yesterday, about a half mile, and didn't feel anything. Or not much. Something was still there, but way in the background. Had time healed my wound?
Dr. McManus felt around my right foot, pressing here and there, but I felt no pain. I couldn't really explain where the pain had been coming from. So I was obviously a fount of useful information to aid him in discerning my problem. He sent me down the hall for an x-ray. When I returned, he looked at the x-ray, showed me an ever-so-slight raise on the fibia (excuse me for getting technical), and said, "That's a stress fracture." He then sat me down, took my foot, and applied pressure.
Bullseye. That's exactly where the pain was. Nailed it the first time.
Fortunately, he didn't see a need to put me in a cast or anything. Instead, he prescribed...running shoes. That's right. He wrote me a prescription to Fred Toenges Shoes, so I could get NuBalance shoes with arch supports. He said I "tend toward flat arches," and some arch support would help prevent stress fractures in the future.
Pam and I went to Fred Toenges this afternoon. Everyone else there was...old. They make shoes for old people. So we young chickadees waited in a room with the dying and soon-to-die, and eventually walked out with some nice-looking running shoes with arch supports. And left me wondering about how to refill this particular prescription.
Career-wise, I've been hanging around and writing about and cheering on churches and pastors for the past 25 years as my denomination's Communications Director.
If it makes you feel better my nephew with Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bones disease) has to buy his shoes there. :-) (oh and he's 5)
Jody