Life in the Boot, and After

It sucked--I'm not gonna lie. I wore my "cam walker" boot for about three and a half weeks, minus a couple of weekends. That doesn't sound like a very long time, but it felt like ages. Getting dressed each day was a new and interesting challenge. I couldn't wear just anything; many of my usual clothing items didn't fit well with the boot, so I often opted for leggings (that part I loved). Also, I had to wear a running shoe on my other foot to approximate the sole height of the boot on the other foot so I wasn't lopsided. This never made for a cute look. I even purchased a custom-made decorative fabric to go on the boot to make it less clinical-looking. But when said fabric arrived, it seemed to make the visibility of the boot nearly triple. (I never actually wore it this way in public.)

Cute, no? No.

I don't see anything diff--oh, there it is.

Also, I wasn't entirely sure the boot was helping my foot get better. I originally got it on the advice of my doctor, who said it would help in the meantime while we waited to get an MRI to determine my actual injury. We thought I might have a metatarsal stress fracture, in which case the boot would definitely be helpful, but it took some time to (1) get insurance approval for the MRI, (2) schedule the MRI, and (3) get the doctor to review the MRI and call me with results. After a couple weeks of wearing the boot (which took time to procure in itself), I got my MRI results: bursitis at the head of my third metatarsal--and a bonus diagnosis of arthritis at the base of my first toe. I could've done without the arthritis diagnosis; that area wasn't bothering me, and there's nothing really to fix arthritis. 

Bursitis, I've learned through Internet research and not from my doctor, is inflammation of the bursa, which is a fluid-filled sac that prevents bones from rubbing against other bones/muscles/tendons. We have bursae all throughout the body (shoulders, hips, ankles, knees, elbows--all the joint areas). Metatarsal bursitis, also called metatarsalgia, is a common overuse injury, especially for athletes of high-impact sports. (By the way, if you're at all squeamish, don't do a Google image search for bursitis. Take my word on that. I even tried to tell the Internet to only look for "normal metatarsal bursae," and those results only gave me comparisons to abnormal, extremely swollen, or surgically removed bursae.) This is the best, unoffensive picture I could find of where the bursae are in the foot, and it's not very specific (as they are actually individual sacs between the bones and muscles, and not one large fluid sac encapsulating all the bone heads, as this picture implies):

My inflammation is in the green area below that third toe.

This is a general depiction of bursitis, on an nondescript body part.

So what does this all mean? Well, like any "itis," or inflammatory condition, there are degrees of inflammation, and the prognosis depends on response to treatment. And treatment consists of (1) not doing the activity that caused the inflammation--check, (2) RICEing--check, and (3) taking anti-inflammatory medications, or herbs and food, as I prefer--check. I haven't run since February 13. And even prior to that, I'd only run once or twice a week, low mileage and low effort, since the Clearwater Marathon on January 19. So I'm getting antsy. I've also gone through athlete's depression, which is a term I'm making up for the sake of distinguishing it from other, more serious forms of depression. I would go to races to support Tim and see friends, but these were all races that I was supposed to be running, too: Best Damn Race (x2), Gasparilla, Bolt Run. All of them great local races. It became too hard to go to these races and put on a happy face, and I wasn't all that supportive in the end, which didn't serve anyone. 

In response to my feelings of frustration, I stopped wearing my boot. That may sound illogical, some may say stupid, but it has already made me feel better. And, oddly, my foot is feeling slightly better. I'm still wearing supportive shoes, and I've learned throughout this process that the feet actually have three arches--internal longitudinal (the "main" one), external longitudinal (parallel to internal longitudinal), and the transverse arch--right where the metatarsals are.

McDonald's has nothing on the human foot.

So I am trying to make sure that my footwear has all of this arch(es) support, and if not, I'm wearing foot inserts, or orthotics, but not like the heavy-duty kind. If it comes to that, though, I will. 

That's the end of my foot anatomy lesson for now. I may try a little jog later this week. If so, I'll be sure to let you know how it goes.