Well, went to see a specialst at the SLV Foot & Ankle Clinic today, and I’m not so sure I’m buyin’ it.

I must admit, I was kind of hopeful when the doc walked into the room wearing a pari of Nike Free running shoes. That hope was quickly deflated as I began telling him about my running history and the history of my injury. Dude soon cut me off after taking a look at my feet, telling me my flat feet were the cause of my injury and that orthotics and more support for me feet were the solution. That quickly blossomed into the need for me to call my insurance provider to see if they’d cover the cost of custom orthotics, as well as the need to wear a “night splint” that will keep my foot in a flexed position so as to keep the tendon stretched.

I don’t know… Maybe I’m the one who is being obtuse here. But I feel as if he completely disregarded what I described to him about the history of my injury. I explained to him that I’d used heel lifts as prescribed by the athletic training staff on campus and hadn’t noticed any improvement with them, and he simply kept telling me that orthotics and heel lifts were the answer.

He took some X-Rays of my feet, and then explained how the X-Rays showed that the bones in my feet meant I needed orthotics because they were arranged in a way that meant I pronated too much……

Honestly, I don’t want somebody to tell me that my bone structure says I need orthotics. Shit, I began running right after I finished football wearing completely neutral shoes and have been running in practically the same for 3 years. Yes, I explained this to the doc, as well as the fact that I’ve done a fair amount of barefoot running in the past and that barefoot running has been the only pain free running I’ve been able to do since December.

So, I really don’t see how my bone structure has been that problematic for me, especially when the injury occurred shortly after logging significant mielage in a pair of bulky, heavily supported shoes for the first time. How is putting my feet back into that kind of an environment via the use of an orthotic going to help?

One of the main things I was hoping to have happen was that an MRI might be ordered, something that might tell us if there was a tear there or not. Of course, when I brought this up the doc advised against it because their expensive ($3,000 being the figure he gave; whether that’s accurate I really don’t know). Upon hearing the figure he gave me, I was certainly a bit more apprehensive about something like that, but when returnign to the office after the visit I looked it up and it appears that my insurance provider requires that I pay only the $100 co-pay, so perhaps a demand that this guy gets me going on this path is in order???

All in all, this visit really did nothing other than leave me even more frustrated with all this shit. I’ll try out this frickin’ “night splint” of his and see what happens, and maybe pick up some over-the-coutner orthotics, but I have trouble seeing how that will help matters out.

At this point I just wish I could put running completely out of my mind. Life was a lot more enjoyable when I was thinking about sex every 52 seconds and not getting pissed about being unable to run every 52 seconds.