"Well, it's not because I missed you," I replied, thankful that Doc puts up with me.
He immediately lifted my bare foot and went to the Achilles/heel bone area that he repaired and began to dig in with his thumbs He hit a few hot spots that made me wince and then looked up at me.
"I see you're still doing what you're doing," he commented, knowing the hot spots were from overuse which was a direct contradiction to his ignored prescription of sitting around twiddling my thumbs.
"Yes," I answered. "But I'm actually here for the other Achilles. It's progressively getting worse and has reached the point where I fear I need you again." Full of regret, my other Achilles was troubling me where I assumed, like my repaired foot, that I had sheared a bone spur that required surgical removal and partial reconstruction of the heel bone. The thought of hitting the reset button for another wasted year of recovery was killing me. Above my ankles, I'm returning to the fitness level I enjoy. But, below my ankles, bad things are happening.
"Let's get an X-ray and see what's going on," Doc stated. I reluctantly followed him out the door and performed a dead man's march to the X-ray room.
Returning from the X-ray room, I sat in the exam room dreading to witness confirmation of my fear. I had avoided Doc's office because I did not want the definitive answer. It was better to tune out the pain and keep moving forward instead of hitting that stupid reset button with intrusive surgery.
Doc sauntered into the room and pulled up the X-ray.
"Hmm..." he rubbed his chin. I stared at my bare feet, braced for the news and mentally preparing for the next round of surgery and recovery.
"You have another spur..." I shook my head, writing off the summer events in which I had already signed up and paid entry fees.
"But, it's inconsequential," he said. I sat a little taller while my spirits rose.
"It's small and is not the problem. Your problem is overuse and your zero-drop shoes putting too much tension on the tendon," he declared as my face stretched into an ear to ear grin.
I was not about to argue the benefits of zero-drop shoes and going barefoot around the house as much as possible, but I asked his remedy.
"Heel lifts," he replied. "By simply getting your heels a little higher than the balls of your feet, tension is removed and your Achilles tendons will be much happier," Doc stated and then his head jerked as he noticed my purple toes.
"What's going on with your toes?" he demanded as he raised my foot and looked underneath to witness the bruising surrounded them in their entirety.
"Well, um...." I stammered. "I did a beer relay race and a sadistic rock teamed up with a low branch to have my foot land, and severely twist, on the rock and I wiped out."
"Did it hurt?" he asked.
"F@#$ yes it did! Still does..." I answered while thinking about my Achilles tendons--I guess they have become like strands of rusty barbed wire not wanting to be stretched.
He began to squeeze my bruised foot, in particular the bones leading out to my pinkie toe, where pain flashed and I saw little white stars and flinched, nearly punching him as a reflex.
"You run today?" he asked and I told him although not pretty, I did hobble around the mountain. "Well, you nearly suffered a Jones Fracture that would have put you in a cast, but it appears you didn't quite break anything. You want some physical therapy for it?" he asked.
"Nope."
"I figured you'd say that," he stated while shaking his head with a smile.
"So what do I do about these heel lifts you mentioned?" I asked, returning him to my main concern.
"I'll send you home with different thicknesses of felt ones. Try them out and see what level brings comfort," he added.
So, I went home and dropped the felt wedges in some shoes. For a couple days I tested the different heights as I did chores around the house, ran, and went to the gym.
What I discovered is that bigger is better! So, I'm going to look pretty stupid doing some events in stiletto sneakers.
(Okay, for newcomers who are scratching their heads wondering if I'm that crazy, the answer is no-- I think. What I did was order some trail running shoes with 6+ mm heel drop. And, I'm wondering if I should get some fishnet stockings to wear with them...)
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