The Perils of Running

The sad reality is (and most runners know this) that about 65% of all runners experience at least one injury during a year or season of running.  It's just the nature of the beast really.  When you're working your body that hard and putting stress on joints and muscles and bones, things happen. I've been fortunate.  I haven't had an  inury that's cost me training time since the stress fracture in my knee in February 2010.  In a way I should have seen this coming. I was having the best race season ever, turning in personal best times in nearly every race and just continuing to get faster and feel better.

And then that weird pain on the top of my foot.  For a few months, I ignored it, and then ran through it.  By the time the lump appeared in early August it was getting too persistent and painful to ignore. So here's the short version: 6 weeks, 3 doctors & 1 ultrasound later I had surgery on Monday to have it removed.  It wasn't that it was particularly dangerous, just annoying.  And since it wasn't going to go away on it's own, this was really the best option. It was just some inflamed & hardened tissue attached to the tendon. Had it not bothered me, I could have left it forever, but since it was painful to walk and run and wear shoes, the only thing to do was have it removed. The photos below are kind of gross if you don't like blood or bruises or feet. There. You've been warned.

This is the little lump that started it all.  It doesn't look so bad, but trust me, it really did hurt quite a bit when doing any physical activity, especially running. Anyway the surgery went well, there were no surprises, the doctor said the tendon is in great shape so now we just have to let the inscision heal and we'll be back in business.

So far I think I've done pretty well.  I managed to have surgery this week and haven't missed a single class. The pain has been manageable and I've been able to keep up with everything so that's been a major plus.  Since surgery on Monday I've had to wear this very sexy boot.  I'll be in it for another couple of weeks until the stitches come out.  It's really more to protect my foot & serve as a reminder that I'm not supposed to be on it more than 30 minutes at a time.

Today I got to go and have the dressing changed & the doctor said it's healing quite well and the swelling has gone down a lot, so that's good.

Anyway, my foot's pretty nasty right now, but it's only temporary.  The stitches come out on the 25th & the doctor said if I heal well I'll be running again about 4 weeks removed from surgery so "YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!" for that!