Orthotics

Yesterday I met with Dr. Chang at Blue Ridge Foot and Ankle to make the casts for my custom orthotics.  I was honest with him about the pain I felt toward the end of the two weeks, which had not yet completely subsided.  After re-assessing my gait he decided that the structure of my calves may be part of the problem.  I inherited my dad's large calf muscles, which are great for strength but not so good for skinny jeans, knee high boots or - apparently - shin splints.  It's kind of complicated but essentially my girth of my man-calves may be causing pulling on the tendon and bone equating to some of the pain.  Thanks, Dad.

That said, I had success with the taping for most of the time (and there's really nothing we can do about the size of  my calves) so we think that the orthotics are going to be a big help.  The process is like getting a cast on a broken bone, only much faster.  Dr. Chang casted both of my feet in a straight prone position.  I just sat in the chair while he worked his magic.  About ten minutes later they were done and ready to be sent to the lab.  Here they are.  Pretty, huh?

It takes a few weeks for the lab to create the orthotics so I will be wearing temporary inserts in the meantime.  I ran with them this morning and though they felt really weird when I first put my shoes on, I felt great after the run.  They definitely provide support that I need and kept my foot in the proper position.  

Now, what to do about those man-calves???

On The Road (to recovery) Again

One of the cool things about being so wide open (like I am here) is that you occasionally connect with people that you may not have otherwise.  I had this experience this week, and I feel very fortunate.

Dr.'s Change and Murray of Blue Ridge Foot and Ankle, are two orthpaedic doctors in Charlottesville.  In addition to being extremely good at the medical side of what they do they have also embraced social media as part of their marketing plan.  They've been doing lots of fun things on-line in an effort to not only get their message out, but truly connect with the community.  If you have questions about sports injuries - any type of injury related to feet and ankles you can find information on their website at www.brfootandankle.com .  

Recently the doctors decided that blogging about the experience of helping someone through their exercise injuries and/or ailments would be a great story. Ironically, about this same time I wrote a blog post about my shin splint issues  and how they have thrwarted my efforts to do a longer race (either mentally or physically) in the past.  We were a perfect match!

  

I met with Dr.'s Chang and Murray for the first time on Wednesday, March 2.  I have to admit I was super excited about this because though I've known I needed professional help I'd never gotten around to making the appointment (typical mom-thing). As I considered this appointment "work" it was something I wouldn't put off - and I knew having these two doctors on my side was going to help me get to where I wanted to be.


You can read Dr. Chang's assessment of our first appointment at the Blue Ridge Foot and Ankle Blog. Essentially I presented with a classic case of shin splints with pain that appears after I've been exercising about 30 minutes, disappears when I rest, and reappears the following day. I also have a cavus foot (who knew?) that doesn't absorb shock well making me a prime candidate for shin splints.  They prescribed R.I.C.E (rest, ice, compression, elevation), stretching, ibuprofen for immediate pain relief and then taught me out to tape my feet for exercise,  I admit I didn't totally understand how taping my feet was going to help, but figured these are two doctors who really know what they're doing so I went with it.  The recommendation was to tape not only for my run days, but also when I am at Clay.  


The taping is a temporary thing to assess if orthotics would be helpful for me. I'm scheduled to go back in two weeks for a gait assessment and possibly orthotic fitting. The doctors think we will be able to conquer this with proper treatment and orthotics.  I'm very hopeful, too!