Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Foot Fun Part 3




A quick recap: Two winters ago, I dealt with peroneal tendonititis in my left ankle and sesamoiditis in my right foot. The ankle had been hurting for longer, but after a long treatment and recovery process, both injuries cleared up by the beginning of summer.

Then, this past winter, the bottom of my right foot started acting up again. My last post left off with my doctor, Dr. Voight, giving her theory of my foot injury along with a treatment plan, but after the treatment my foot hurt just as bad.

So, on with my foot injury saga. I called Dr. Voight and she said that she was stumped. She recommended I see a foot and ankle specialist, so I made an appointment with Summit Orthopedics Dr. Castro.

At my appointment with Dr. Castro, he looked at my MRI and did a quick exam on my lower leg. I told him about my previous two diagnosis, a neuroma or inflammation between my metatarsals. He clicked his tongue and shook his head in what I took to mean he didn’t think it was either of those things.

As he was talking, I remember something Dr. Voight telling me: “You have had some uncommon foot problems.”

Dr. Castro had an interesting diagnosis. He explained to me that there are tendons that run from the calf muscles to the metatarsals, and split at the metatarsals. His theory on my injury made sense to me, but not enough sense that I could explain it succinctly. But what he did say is part of the problem was that I had extremely tight calves, I believe it was along the lines of: “You have the tightest calves I’ve ever seen.”

The only thing he prescribed were calf stretches. When I started doing the stretches, I noticed he was right—my calves were tight. I decided to take another two weeks off of running and focus on loosening up my calf muscles. That was eight weeks ago... I’ll let you know how it turned out.

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