I made a visit to the podiatrist yesterday. He decided I needed an xray since it hurt when he pushed on my metatarsal (bone). He said the area I was having pain was a common area for stress fractures.
Well, he was right! I have a stress fracture on my 3rd metatarsal. (This is my first ever broken bone!) It's been 3 and a half weeks since I had the bad experience running where I could hardly walk at the end of it. So my pain and swelling has gone down tremendously. It was interesting that he said a stress fracture won't show up until about 2 or 3 weeks after it happens. That's why mine showed up on the xray. It was a cloud in one picture and there was a tiny little line in the other. He said the cloud is like the body's "cast". I thought that was kind of cool to know that our body can do amazing things like protecting itself so that it can heal an injury.
So he gave me a couple options as far as what to wear on my foot from now until it fully heals. I chose to have this insert put in my shoe.
It will take the pressure off of the fracture when my foot rolls forward while I'm walking. He said that I should try to minimize the amount of walking I do barefoot. Since I work from home, I think I'll wear this around while I'm at home.
This is Kaitlyn's boot that I'm borrowing from her. She just had a stress fracture of her own over the summer! So I figure I may as well take advantage of the fact that I have one to borrow.
My stress fracture was due to running. I was looking online and it said that one of the causes is overpronation, which I know I have a problem with. When I buy some running shoes when I'm ready to run again, I'll have to make sure I get some shoes made for people who overpronate. Let's just hope this doesn't happen again.
Here's to at least another few weeks of taking it easy on my foot. I have to also add that my doctor husband was exactly right. He said when I first hurt it that it was probably a stress fracture. Hence yet another reason my hubby should've become a doctor (and the fact that he has a little experience with broken bones in his feet!).
As a side note, I must say that seeing the xray of my foot today was pretty cool. That's the only xray I've ever had besides on my teeth at the dentist. I wish I would've taken a picture of it just to remember this milestone in my life. I guess that's why I have this post :)
