A Chance

Well, Dr. Jamie confirmed what I already knew: the placement of the foot pain made it definitely suspect, as top of foot pain very often means a stress fracture. But, given that I was having some shin/calf pain along with the foot pain, there is the chance it is tendonitis, so all hope is not lost. During the appointment, he also identified some imbalances and a weak glute muscle, which would lead to pulling on the IT band/knee/etc, and make things tight overall, and which likely contributed to the foot pain, whether it turns out to be a stress fracture or not. After some crunching (OW!), releasing and pulling (OW!) of my hips, legs and foot (surely these are not the correct terms, but that is the essence of what I felt :-) ), he gave me some instructions for the next few days, showed me a few exercises I should do to strengthen the glute muscle so as to hopefully prevent future leg tightness/imbalances, as well as a few stretches, and told me to email him on Friday to let him know how things felt. Essentially, he said it was likely that the work he did would either release/relax the joints/tendons and the foot pain would dissipate or at least stay the same, in which case I could come back for some more work to loosen things up and then be on my merry way; or the pain would start to intensify/settle in one spot, in which case we would know it was a stress fracture. Either way, I'm taking it easy for now, and if it is a stress fracture, I won't be doing any running for 4 to 6 weeks. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that is isn't, but I suppose it is likely. In any event, I should have a clearer idea later this week.