The Foot Chronicles… or my (chronic) left foot

I’ve mentioned the foot/ankle/leg thing a few times. If you’re a regular reader (and yay for you!) you’ll know that it’s been the reason for my extended absence from my running club for a few months now. 

I started off with a self diagnosis with the help of Dr Google. It doesn’t take brain (or even foot) surgery to look up “pain on inside of ankle after running” and find a diagnosis that ticked all the symptom boxes. 

My (correct) self-diagnosis was posterior tibial tendonitis. I then went to a physiotherapist who confirmed the diagnosis and did some treatments and strapped me up.

 But while the strapping and treatment helped a bit with the immediate pain, it wasn’t a remedy and pretty much any stretch of walking now leaves me aching for hours. Running is out of the question. 

After weeks of doing the “rest” part of RICE, with no improvement, I finally decided to seek treatment. Even though I knew what was wrong, I wasn’t sure how to fix it. And I’ve procrastinated about going to a specialist of any sort because, to be honest, I’ve had no idea where to start. Physio? Biokeniticist? Podiatrist? Orthopedic? Reflexologist? Craniosacral Therapy? All of the above?

Long story short, after chatting to a sports podiatrist, I decided a consultation with him would be a good start. And I had a very long and in depth consultation with him this morning. 

At the the end of it, I’m left wondering what’s actually not wrong with my left foot. Low arch, PTT, shin splints and tight, crackly, fascia. So where to from here? He’s recommended physio for the inflammation and custom orthotics to support the arches. And I probably need to shoe shop for a new daily shoe wardrobe. I basically need to be in a supportive shoe 24 hours a day. Ok maybe not 24 – I do sleep for about 7 of the 24 hours. 

Right now, the most comfortable shoes I own are a pair of grungy black combat boots. I’m not sure if can build an entire summer wardrobe around combat boots! The best I could come up with is this:

Once the pain is gone, I can start doing some l strengthening exercises and slowly start running again. Baby steps. 

So there’s the story. Hopefully I’m on the right path for my left foot… and that OMTOM2017 is not completely off the table.