Brilliant brilliant brilliant!

Last night I sat on my sofa in a complete sulk. I think I've been pretty good coping with the news my foot had a stress fracture and I sort of took it in my stride (no pun intended). Yesterday that optimism and positive outlook became a dreary miserable grey mood and when Graeme asked me what was wrong and I said it was nothing, he prodded and poked until I eventually shouted at him to leave me alone beause I was depressed about my foot. This led to a tear or two falling down my cheek with me trying to hide it (unsucessfully) and then when Graeme came and gave me a cuddle it was too much and I absolutely cried my eyes out. I cried so much that even my throat hurt. I was convinced that a trip to the podiatrists was going to result in me being told not to run Llanelli in 5 weeks.

This morning I went to my appointment. Paul (the podiatrist) wasn't too happy that I had taken the padding off my foot until I explained it felt better without it. He sat me down and prodded and squeezed and poked whilst looking at my face. Most stuff didn't feel like much at all until he squeezed the joint up to my second toe. This hurt, but pressing underneath only gave no pain at all. Then I couldn't believe my ears... it isn't a stress fracture at all. He said that the main pain was by compressing the joint on both sides which was indicative of strained soft tissue around the joint as opposed to it being fractured. Last week the slightest touch was agony when he started messing on but it's healing much quicker than a stress fracture would. I can't tell you how chuffed I was to hear that.

So, I've been given a rigid sandal to wear for a week and I'm to take anti-inflammatories. He told me I could take them last week but I stupidly ignored his advice after reading that they can slow down the healing of a fracture. Maybe if I had taken them I'd be even further on than I am now! Important lesson... don't ignore a professionals' advice.

So, I asked him could I do a race in 5 weeks time. Now, Paul is the opitomy of "careful careful careful" so when he (without hesitation) said, "Yeah, that should be fine", I almost fell off the chair. He added that my main worry for the moment was the amount of fitness I have probably lost over this, but added that he really thought the shoes that I wore that caused me so much grief in December were the original cause and doing all of the training that I did had not done anything more than exacerbate an injury that was already there. This is great news as I was worried I was going to have to take more recovery time between sessions once I'd got over all of this.

I'm so pleased. This news is brilliant brilliant brilliant!!!!