I didn't actually see my doctor. He was out of town to support a U.S. Men's Volleyball tournament in Denver. I saw his associate, a very nice gal who also specializes in sports medicine.
After getting caught up on my condition and how my ankle is feeling, she recommended that I begin water physical therapy. It will be for the purposes of building up my leg muscles again while my heel finishes its recovery. If my insurance won't pay for that, I'll do "regular" PT.
As far as weight bearing and using the boot, she feels I should be in the mode of "weight bearing as tolerated." That means that if it hurts to walk on it, don't. She didn't give me any hard and fast numbers of how many more weeks to stay off of it or wear the boot. I should gauge for myself what I think is best. She did mention, however, that she'd like to see me walking around some at home "in a shoe."
Pain is the real guide here. She doesn't want to order any images if it seems like pain is slowly going away; on the flip side I shouldn't do anything that causes a lot of pain. She did share that most of the pain I've felt likely came from the contusion in the heel and not necessarily the fracture itself. The fracture is likely healing, but the contusion will take a long time to fully go away.
Because of that and all the walking I do with my job, she feels that wearing more of a "walking shoe" or cushioned shoe at work from now on would be best. She understands my preference for minimal footwear, and I understand her points, so it may be that I'll wear the insoles that came with my Terra Plana VivoBarefoot shoes and maybe even an additional cushioned heel cup for a while. Split the difference, in other words.
So we'll play it by...er, foot, and see what happens. I'm looking forward to PT, because that tells me I'm on my way back to an active lifestyle and running. I have another followup with my regular doctor again in two weeks. We'll see what happens between now and then. As always, I'll keep you posted.
I welcome your comments below. Have you ever dealt with a foot injury? I'd be interested to hear your experience in the comments section, too.
I've read through all of your achiles/stress fx related posts and I have almost the exact same thing.
ReplyDeleteI started running in 5 Fingers while training for my most recent marathon. I was slowly increasing my distance in them and feeling pretty good about it. Late in a run I started to feel a twinge of soreness in the heel/achilles area. Within a mile, I could hardly walk.
The pain I experienced was similar to something I felt a few years ago. That pain started randomly and simply "went away" after a (long) while. Since this instance was more acute and I knew when it started, I decided to see a doctor. He ruled out a torn achilles and ordered an MRI. He diagnosed me with a calcaneal stress fx, just like you.
I've stuck with the boot, but cannot bear to be on crutches. I am walking less and its finally (after more than 4 weeks) starting to feel better. It still seems more muscular/tendon than it does bone, but I saw the MRI and I do see the tiny crack.
What have you done to cross train? How was your water pt? Do you think that swimming is a good substitute?
Please continue to keep us updated on your progress since we have such similar situations.
I'm thankful to be reading about your experience as I'm seriously thinking about starting to run barefoot this coming season.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your healing is coming along and I thank you for sharing this interesting experience with all of us.
Instead of putting your shoe on like she said, try that tape job I suggested. I can maybe make you a little youtube video of how to do it. That way, you can still be your minimal self, and have the padding of the heel cup tape job.
ReplyDeleteAt least try it. It's the least you can do.
Tweet me if you want a youtube vid.