Greetings. I'm writing today in the hopes that someone might be able to help me with an injury I've been dealing with for several months now. Specifically, I have pain on the bottom of my right foot, about halfway up the outside edge.
The deal is that I have dealt with this pain before, but it has never been this bad. Some things that elicit this pain would be walking long distances in shoes with very little support (flip flops, Toms) or running in a pair of shoes that is a little past its prime.
This time, I think the latter was the origin. I trained for and ran a half in November (training was from about August on) without any problems at all. Then, I had to leave my home and took only the pair of shoes that I had run the race in (and trained in). I did a few runs while I was away, and I felt this pain start to develop, but because I was only going to be gone for a short time, I figured I would try to push through and did maybe four runs of medium length. Then, when I got back home (Hawaii) and got new shoes, the pain did not abate. I took two weeks off and then tried to run but it came back. The last run I did was in February, and I'm starting to lose it.
I've been to see a sports medicine doc and a podiatrist. The former said that it is "tendonitis" and the latter said "soft-tissue damage." The sports medicine doc gave me a CAM boot, but this didn't seem to help (I felt a lot of pressure while wearing the boot). They did an X Ray (but not an MRI) and told me to basically wait. When I contacted them a month later, they told me to wait some more. I'm getting really sick of just being told to wait, and I don't know it's Kaiser trying to avoid treatment or if it's truly the only way to proceed.
I have been slowly reducing all activity since February, but this still isn't going away. For about a month after my diagnosis, I lifted weights, but once I realized that this was probably aggravating the injury, I stopped. It's been like three weeks now since I have done any activity at all, and the problem is certainly a little better, but it's still there. I ice it in an ice bath usually twice a day and take ibuprofen each night before bed.
My podiatrist has told me that the only next step on her end is a cortisone shot or an MRI (I have been trying to avoid the MRI because it will cost me $600 and both docs have told me that it probably won't tell me much [I could fill fifty threads with all the bad things I'd like to say about Kaiser health care, but I know this isn't the place]).
Recently, I've noticed soreness in the peroneal brevis area, which would lead me to believe that it might be peroneal tendonitis, but I sometimes feel like the pain is a little further up on the foot.
The pain comes on as the day progresses. In the morning, it's not there at all, but I can usually feel some throbbing later in the day. Icing helps. Also, my running shoes (the new pair, which is an update of the model I've been wearing for years) feel tight on my right foot. The podiatrist recommended Sole insoles and flops, so I have two pairs of the insoles (the padded ones for roomy shoes and the thinner ones for regular shoes) and I wear the flops around the house to give some support.
I'm writing today to seek advice on treatment, opinions about how to proceed, etc. Also, if you've dealt with something like this, how did you handle it and how long did it take to heal?