The last post I published was back in February when I was bemoaning the fact that I was in a plaster cast on my foot for the foreseeable future!
Eight weeks stretched out in front of me, it was snowing, cold, I was in pain, and I was just plain miserable!
Well, some things have improved - the plaster has gone, the snow has melted, it's boiling hot today, and I'm never going to be completely pain free or happy but you can't have it all!!
The plaster cast did nothing! Absolutely zilch, nada, nowt! When I went back to have it removed my foot was still bruised, swollen and painful, and the subsequent MRI showed that nothing had changed from the previous August.......
The consultants answer was to leave it for another year, and by then it should be better, or to get a second opinion.....
Not being one to have much patience ( a year?!?! ) I had two second opinions - well, you have to make sure the second opinion is a good one - and they both came to the same conclusion within a matter of minutes....and, I'm now practically cured!
I apparently broke my foot, so much so that it clipped or trapped a nerve and caused neurogenic pain - and before you clever logs out there ask why it didn't show up on MRI??
There was a lot of bone which didn't show up as it was covered in fluid!
And the treatment? Acupuncture! Or pins and needles as I like to call it...
Being a nurse I see needles all day, every day - 'am I bothered?' - no - until they have to go into me....
Did I think acupuncture would work? No, not really, but I had tried EVERYTHING else and the pain was driving me insane.
I firstly went to see a private therapist, and was somewhat sceptical. She explained the science behind it, took my history, then showed me the needles - boy, are they BIG!! and then I went very dizzy and felt sick......
Anyways.....several treatments later, and the pain was under control, and then my GP discovered that their is a local physio who does orthopaedic acupuncture at the local hospital on the NHS - and to date I have tried two 6 mile runs and an 8 miler!
I've ached a little after, but it's my knees which have given me trouble not so much my foot, and strangely - I only needed to do those 3 runs to see if I still functioned!
I like going out for a walk with the dogs in the evenings, 2-3 miles seems enough, and I've joined a yoga class on a Monday - I just don't seem to have the 'urge' to go out and do an 85mile ultra marathon where I used to!
I'm still having acupuncture weekly, as I do still get niggly aches in my foot, and I guess part of me is wary of overdoing anything - and after ' enforced rest' from last August to June this year it's going to be hard changing my coffee stops ( but decaf now!!) for runs.
We'll see - the consultant might be right after all all - a year of rest - bah!!
Bike?!
ReplyDelete