The Foot

I hurt my foot on 11/9/09.  For the last couple of years, I had this random, crazy, excruciating nerve pain shooting under my big toe whenever I wore certain shoes.  So I just stopped wearing those shoes. 

Then I started running and my only issue was shin splints (not unexpected given my history).  Until November.  I'm not sure how much of this is related, but here's the recap so I can remember it later.  On 10/31, I met with Sarah to get a chi*running tune up.  She gave me some tips and suggested that maybe I should look into wearing NB790s (so that I might actually feel what my feet are doing).  I ordered some and they showed up a few days later.  I took them out for a practice run at the indoor track on 11/5/09 and my foot was kinda hurty.  I didn't think much of it.  I wore the 790s at work for the next couple of days, just to see how they felt.  I had some pain, but again, didn't think much of it.

On 11/9, I wore the 790s to work again and had that horrible nerve pain every time I took a step.  Awful!  I dug a pair of Cr*cs out of my car and wore those for the rest of the day.  As the week wore on, my foot didn't get better.  In fact, it got worse.  I iced, I elevated, I rested.  And I hobbled.  All over the place.  All I could wear were Cr*cs. In fact, I had my first DNS on 11/21/09.  So.very.sad.  I ran 5ks on 11/26, 12/5, & 12/12 - but not without pain.  And with added knee pain from all the compensating I was doing for my foot. 

I went to a podiatrist on 12/14.  She said that I have some arthritis in my big toe and that I have a neuroma in that foot.  She gave me a steroid injection in the foot and a prescription for Motrin 600s to take for 7 days.  It seemed to help - until I stopped the motrin.  Then the knee pain came back and I had the nerve pain back under my toes. 

I attempted running on 12/27/09.  I made it about 30 feet and then couldn't deal with the foot pain.  I went back to the podiatrist for a follow up on 1/4/10.  I told her what happened and that I really want to get back on the road.  (I've been feeling so depressed and dejected because there has been no end in sight for this injury.)  She said that she was also a runner so she understood what I was going through.  She prescribed a 6 day taper of oral steroids.  She said that it would target my foot and my knee and hopefully help the nerve to chill out.  I started the steroids today, so I'm doing lots of finger crossing.  I go back to check in with her on 1/25/10.