The foot Dr is in!

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I did see a new Dr/Chiropractor about my foot this week. I was going to put this in my weekly post, but it was running too long so I thought i would make it a special post and include more information.  As you know,  I was concerned that my foot just wasn't getting 100% better with the recent flare ups in pain, even if the pain was low.  My coach was really pushing me to figure out what the problem was before we started 50 K training.  I had heard about this guy that is suppose to be a miracle worker,  Dr. Richard Foveaux at Jointfit in Manhattan.  My boss had actually used him when she tore her plantar fascia in a freak accident when we were hiking on the beach last year at our UGM in San Deigo.  She loved him and healed nicely, and I was intrigued hearing about his methods that he used on her injury.  I was  told that he was very hard to get in with, so initially when my foot starting hurting, I didn't seek him out.  I went with the quicker route, and while I felt like it did help some, obviously we weren't fully finding out what the problem was.

He started out with a VERY thorough exam and a history of all the issues i have had in the past with my foot and my ankle.  He did a very long exam with the ultrasound of both of my feet top and bottom.  His initial thought was bursitis between my toes, but he also felt like there was something in there that needed to be tweaked, perhaps a small muscle.  He also double checked for stress fractures, and found none.

What he did find was a increase in the space between my fourth and fifth toe on both feet, suggesting that something is going on with my current shoes, thus the reoccurrence.  He feels like the sacouny kinvaras might have a too narrow toe box, and with the wonky way I run, that is causing my two last toes to slam together and slam against the edge of the shoe.  He did tons of measuring of the inserts and toe box, and my feet, but he hasn't fully said he thinks I should change shoes yet.

He also tried a technique called dry needling.  He kind of lied to me and told me it was not a big deal, even when I commented several times that I am not a fan of needles.  While I didn't watch, it still hurt horribly bad, and I hope I NEVER have to have that done again.  If you don't know what dry needling is, basically my understanding is that they stick a needle very similar to an acupuncture needle into a trigger point, and then look for a twitch in the muscle.  They then pass current through the needle into the muscle to help healing.  While I have had this done on my dogs, I have never had this done on myself, and I was not a fan.  I guess if it helps things heal, then it doesn't matter, I will continue to do it, but that was really painful and I have a very high pain tolerance.  My coach also has had this done on her IT band and glutes, and claimed it was not bad at all for her so maybe it isn't a big deal to others or it is site specific.  Just typing this makes me nauseous thinking about the pain. I was also given some strengthening exercises and am doing the double aleve again and icing till my recheck on Friday.

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Overall, I am still very sore two days out from all of the poking and prodding, but hope we are moving in the right direction.  I was intrigued to know that the muscle that he thinks is tweaked, the adductor hallucis, can mimic stress fracture pain or referred pain.  We still don't know what the initial injury was, but it seems healed. I also still feel like my abductor digit minimi might be tweaked as well so that may have to be gulp, needled as well.  I will have an update friday so keep your finger's crossed that we are on the right path!  I would like to be 100% pain free!!!!