So my foot acted up again. Went to the doc, had a blood test drawn, so I should find out soon if we can rule out gout, or if I'm going to be forgoing all the foods I love. Asparagus? Spinach? Beef? WHISKEY????
On the other hand, I've injured this foot multiple times, so if it's an injury it's probably an accumulation of all the various crap I've done to myself through the years. I jacked it up good twice in LA. The second time I actually heard all the bones *pop* as my foot came down on a rock and damn near folded on itself. The x-ray showed either tiny bone spurs or calcifications in the joint that's causing me issues. Prior to that I strained the tendons/ligaments so badly I couldn't walk for a week, and couldn't run for a month and a half.
On top of that, add in all the crap I've done in the Army. Apparently I have plantar fasciitis on top of everything else going on with the feet. The nurse kept poking my tendon at the bottom of my foot and saying "That shouldn't be sticking out like this."
Bottom line - no matter what the diagnosis is, I'm probably done with any serious running for a while. Maybe forever. Which sucks, because I like running. Hopefully I'll find out from the doc about the test tomorrow. If it's not gout, I'm going to an orthopedist to see what can be done. Until then I'm just limping along.
You know the reason people can retire after twenty years in the military? Because most folks can't really go beyond that.
4 comments:
Dave - I get it that you like to run and sympathize with your foot pain.
However, you run (no pun intended) a high risk of ruining your knees and hips - not just your feet. Jogging was just getting started as the "thing to do" when I was teaching ballroom dancing. All of us dancers sat around and marveled at the dangers of people running on pavement and blacktop and the damage they were doing to their knees in particular, but also their hips.
100% of the runners I have personally known have all had knee and hip surgery in their 60's and 70's.
How about cross-fit or something like that? Or check out what Mark Sisson (Mark's Daily Apple) recommends for fitness.
I had to give up running when I blew out my knee, back in the summer of '86. The longest I had walked/run prior to that was just over 17 miles, and I BARELY managed a 20k in '88 (it was for a March of Dimes fund raiser, so I put up with the pain). But the Navy Corpsmen had me on 800mg Motrin, which I was popping like Skittles... bleeding ulcer resulted in early '90.
When my 10 year re-enlistment came up, I had maxed out on waivers for the mandatory 1 1/2 mile run, and almost drowned doing the 500m swim when my leg locked up, mid-pool, so they wouldn't let me re-enlist, but also refused to give me a medical discharge, since I wouldn't have had enough time to go through the process.
Make sure EVERYTHING in your medical file is complete (and I mean every time you went in, for any reason), and get a full copy for yourself, just in case. Trust me.
So.... I had to re-learn how to run in 2013. Went from heel-strike to landing on the ball of my foot. I've had back/knee issues for a while now thanks to the Army. I'm also at 18+ years active duty, so they can't kick me out without retiring me. At this point, my focus is on fixing the problem long term, because my Army time is down to years I can count on one hand.
get the problems addressed while youre still in... if not fixed, at leadt get the troubleshooting done and get a repair plan underway. DO NOT let the va get involved.... stick with tricare or whatever they call it now. the va damn near killed me....twice.....simply because they can't get their paperwork straight. had i not driven the 375 miles to anchorage and physically walked into their oncology office to get an approval, the system would have dragged to the point where i would have become untreatable. it was that close.
Post a Comment