Metatarsal Support and New Theories About My Body

On Friday, I went to the Doc to ask about this foot pain I've been having. They did an x-ray and found nothing broken, but they DID find a bone spur from Lord-knows-what from some possible trauma X many years ago:

The Doc thought the same thing as my Chiro: I need some metatarsal support. That support comes in the form of a dense triangular-shaped pad that goes under my foot just behind the ball of my foot but just in front of my arch. My foot is collapsing for some reason, and this helps hold it up the way it should. (At least, this is my understanding of the situation.)

I have one in my "walking around" shoes, and one in my running shoes.

That provided relief right away. My foot is getting better too because I can be barefoot for longer now without pain. Before, I could take a few steps barefoot and my foot would hurt right away. We'll see if these pads lead to "correcting" the issue, or if it just "manages" the issue/pain while I wear them.

At the advice of my P.T. (who is now throughly confused about my body and whom I've stopped seeing), I've been seeing my Chiro. Tomorrow will be the 4th time in 2 weeks, and I think we're about to start slowing down. As I mentioned in a post last week, he's pretty sure my lower leg pain is NOT referred down from my lower back. He's just never seen any case like that and can't believe that. He's been doing some Graston Technique "massage" on my lower leg, and that's been helping. He's also been trying to adjust my lower back, but earlier this week, he uttered some words that he felt bad for saying: "Steve, maybe that Doc from 3 years ago was right - I don't think there's anything I can do, so this pain in your lower back might be something you just have to live with." He thinks my sacrum is a little locked up on the right side, but he's not having any luck with it.

Taped up after a Chiro visit. Yes, I have to shave that section of leg.
It's like a "landing strip" that goes nowhere.

Last night, I had another visit with Robert at Element Wellness Group. He worked a bit more on my lower back...

Lots of needles under the heat lamp.

... and he worked on my foot too:

So the good news in this "oh-my-God-my-body-is-so-busted" post is that I'm still supposed to keep running. Today I started week 6 of my "return to running" program which means I'll be doing three 30-minute easy runs this week. ACTUAL running! For a duration that actually FEELS like something! I'm still not out of the woods, but I'm hoping to be able to build up to 60 minutes in the next 6 weeks.