Bootless in Seattle! (Err... St. Paul)

I met with my (2nd) podiatrist and my (3rd) PT last week. The week prior, I sent my podiatrist this message so he was ready for me:

(And HERE'S the post from 2 weeks ago where I describe more about the chat with the Mom from my gym about my FHL. I'm not convinced that it's FHL tendonitis because that is aggravated by "toeing off," which was impossible in the boot. And I was RELIGIOUS about wearing the boot for those 5 weeks, so that should have helped. But it really didn't.)

The Doc and my PT both sort of agreed: they still don't really know what it is, but they don't really think it's my FHL (they both think it could be nerve pain maybe?), and I'm supposed to start running, LET IT HURT, and keep running through it.

I'm not convinced that will work, but I'll give it a shot. Here's something I posted on Instagram on Friday:

Caption:

Yesterday I did my first cardio in 2 months: I swam for 20 minutes.

I had another podiatrist and PT appointment this week, and they still don’t really know what’s up. The newest theory is my pain since August has been nerve pain, and that I should try “running through it” and make it hurt more. I’m not optimistic, but it can’t hurt. (Literally. The MRI showed there’s nothing that I’m hurting long term.)

So I’m mostly out of the boot, and I’m wearing my slippers when I can (like for my classes yesterday) because their open back doesn’t rub and aggravate my sore foot. Once I had given the boot a good effort, I started slowly wearing it less while also aggressively massaging that sore spot. It’s been just over a week of doing that, and I think that has helped the most over these last seven months.

Saying it again for the XXth time, but hoping we’re finally on the right track!

Walking around the gym on Saturday seemed to aggravate it a bit (I think it's the changing directions a lot while never just "walking" in one direction), so I still might wear the boot and use the scooter at the gym just to stay off it. We'll see.

So I'm back to doing my toe yoga exercises, doing some stretching and massaging of my foot, and adding heat in as well. We'll see how running treats me in a few days.