Kick the boot to the curb!

Das boot is gone. I am so happy to have seen Dr. Noeller today. She didn't think it was crazy that I wanted to just walk out in 2 shoes today. She listened to the horror story of the last 8 weeks and she said that even with a minimal amount of pain I should be allowed to walk on my own. YAY!!!!! I swear I could have kissed her.

She said what happens is sometimes we push our injuries too fast (which was what happened in the first 3 weeks before they diagnosed the stress fractures and they had me doing Physical Therapy). But now the problem I was experiencing 8 weeks later is that too much caution has created a newer problem.

Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy was beginning to develop. The pain signals to my brain were still being sent because I was scared of the pain from having been subjected to it early on. So, my foot would actually twitch when anyone would get close to me...even before they touched me. My nerves are becoming overly sensitive to pain and even though I can see that there is great improvement I couldn't convince anyone to let me do anything and they kept reversing my care instead of progressing me.

She noted that I was holding my foot weird even when I was relaxed. My left foot was physically colder than the right. That has to do with being iced too much, loosing feeling and being kept in the boot.

She said she never gets the easy patients from Ouch Sports Medicine. LOL

Today, she gave me a pair of new insoles and allowed me to walk out with them in my Brooks Infinity shoes. I am still on physical restrictions. This weekend I am only allowed to wear the new insoles for 2 hours at a time. Starting Monday I can return to the bike at the gym and am encouraged to try to walk normally to break the pain signals. Starting the week after that I can take 10 minute walks around the neighborhood. I go back to see her in 2 weeks when she'll make my custom orthotics. Then she'll put together a training plan for me.

She said that there is no reason why an athlete like I am should be kept in the boot this long. YAY!!!!!!!