Once A Runner…

“Possible Tibialis-Posterior Tendinitis”

So, the ankle was really annoyingly painful and swollen yesterday morning. The doctor took a look at my feet and knees, had me do a couple of squats with my feet in their natural placement and with my feet pointed more forward than my right foot normally does, and diagnosed my problem as possibly tibialis-posterior tendinitis. So, it wasn’t a mild sprain from stepping funny off a curb. That misstep must have simply thrown an existing biomechanical weakness out into the open for me.

Prescription? Rest, ice, compression, elevation, NSAIDS for pain and inflammation. I didn’t want to hear the rest part of the treatment, but I knew that was coming when I hobbled in there. RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation) is always the smart thing to do anyway, and the one thing doctors will almost always tell you to apply.

When the doctor explained that I could be looking at a rupture of the tendon if I didn’t let it heal, that my right foot could lose what arch it has left and go flat, and then we’d be talking surgical correction, well… that was enough for me. I left the hospital with a photocopied sheet of exercises to do, an ankle wrap-brace kind of thing, a big rubber band, and a bottle of ibuprofen.

I took off yesterday from my walking, tried to spend as little time on my feet as possible, iced the ankle, and did the exercises on the photocopied page he gave me. The ankle is wrapped and feels okay — less pain anyway and less swelling. I guess I might be out of the walking game for a few days or so. I’ll keep track of the pain and swelling and see when I might be able to manage getting in a little walking around the block again. In the meantime, I’ll have to reduce my daily caloric intake to compensate for the loss of physical activity, of course.

Sucks to have any kind of injury, but having a worse one later when I want to be running again would suck more.