Hey there,
Well I wish I could give you good news. But nope, I've been continuing the physio which has made slight progress. But nothing has really changed. I feel like I'm taking two tiny steps forward and one big step back. It's hard to describe because although I know there is progress it's so slow and so minimal that I don't feel like it can be measured week by week. I am better than I was back in February but not good enough to walk yet.
Helen the physio at Physio Plus has been amazing. Not only has she dealt with the injuries to my foot and leg but she's seen me go up and down in mood. It certainly distracts me when she's trying to unknot my calf muscle if I can talk to her about how I'm feeling about being injured. Helen's tried all the conventional treatments on me for plantar fasciitis. Massage, both in my calf which knots up every week to some extent, and in my plantar fascia. That is sore, but it's the kind of pain that you know is actually doing good. She can feel the inflammation in my foot and can judge how it's doing. She's also used ultrasound therapy on the sole of my foot and taping.
We have also tried acupuncture. I think I'm the biggest sceptic in the world when it comes to alternative and complementary therapies. But I was willing to give it a go. Helen placed tiny thin needles down my calf which didn't hurt at all. I couldn't even feel them. Then she got to the foot. Now if you think about a foot there isn't much padding down there around the bones and in the arch of the foot. So sticking needles under my ankle bone and by my toe joints wasn't pleasant, but was bearable. We then had a discussion about whether to try a point directly in the plantar fascia, basically in the arch of the foot. After consulting with Cathryn, another physio, Helen thought it might be worth a try and I just said "oh go on give it a go!"
Helen went to put the needle in the sole of my foot, and as it went in I took off from the bed! The pain was bad enough to make me jump! That caused Helen to jump, while Cathryn dissolved into a fit of giggles. After extracting me from a supply cupboard located at the end of the massage bed (no not really) a mutual decision was made to take that needle straight out! Despite my new long jump/high jump PB from a lying flat position, acupuncture didn't really do much.
I have to say, working with physios who actually have a laugh and a human side, as well as being professional helps so much. I'm able to be honest with Helen about what I think is making a difference and what isn't
I had an appointment with a foot and ankle specialist at the hospital too. I really didn't know what to expect when I went to see him. Helen wrote him a letter describing what we had tried. He asked me to tell him about the injury and said that he thought the first course of treatment should be a cortisone injection into the plantar fascia. My heart sank. Not just because I'd only had a needle in the base of my foot a few weeks earlier courtesy of Helen, but because I've heard about how painful cortisone injections are. But I know that this isn't clearing up on its own. So I sat on the bed and asked the nurse "is this going to hurt?" To which she replied "yes, unfortunately!" Wow, thanks for that, lol.
Cortisone is a steroid injection which is mixed with a local anaesthetic to help it spread. The doctor felt around the arch of my foot to find where the pain was most acute then injected it. It's done quite slowly. The pain is immense I must say and I did hold the nurses hand. The local anaesthetic numbs the foot for several hours. So by the time I got to the car park my foot was completely asleep. The anaesthetic wore off though after about 3 hours and oh my god did the pain kick in. The cortisone can cause a flash reaction where the pain increases temporarily and I ended up back on my crutches for 2 days.
Once the immediate pain of the flash wore off I was anxiously hoping for an improvement in my foot, however up to now, 8 days later, my foot feels the same as it did before the jab. I have to go back to the hospital in 6 weeks and the doctor has said he is then going to consider a treatment that is basically when my own blood is taken and injected into the damaged tendon.
My mood has been up and down over the past few weeks. I honestly believe the Internet does more good than harm but you always get idiots. A group of keyboard warriors found this blog and decided to take the piss out of me for running, having been overweight and diabetic and my mental health problems. I find it strange that people think that by throwing something I'm completely honest about they're going to hurt me. I mean calling someone "fat" or "forest gump" is rather infantile even by my standards, and I'm not the most grown up adult out there, however I believe it said more about them than me. I'll always be proud of what I achieved through running and even though this injury has become more serious than I thought I'll get back to running eventually.
Helen and I have discussed the running and come to a decision that 2013 is not realistic to run again as I can't walk without pain. So I'm using the rest of the year to recover and start psyching myself up for 2014. It's been hard deferring my places that I already had in runs, mentally seeing others start the road running season with aims and goals really did hit hard. But I can come back stronger next year by taking it easy and doing as I'm told this year.
As you know I like to raise funds for charity and this year it's for David Rathband's blue lamp foundation. I had said I'd run all year for them but that's not possible so I've had a rethink. I'm now going to swim 190 miles for the cause, which was David's badge number, and ironically the distant between the Tyne Bridge and Stafford University, as I'm a Geordie lass and David was from Stafford. I'm just thankful he wasn't Tango 1900 as 190 miles is far enough to swim. If you want to donate to my just giving page it's at www.justgiving.com/howaythelass and I'm aiming to raise £1000, to help the emergency services personnel injured on duty. Any donations are received with thanks.
So that's where I'm at. A long way to go. But you know me, I'm not one for giving in!
