Decisions, Decisions

I've spent the past couple days processing what I was told on Friday and trying to figure out where to go from here. This afternoon will make nine weeks since what I now feel like was the moment I first broke my foot. I didn't know it at the time, and it would take me a few more weeks to get the official diagnosis, but I'm pretty sure the "pop" followed by intense pain I felt at the end of a run on the Hanging Rock Trail that Monday evening, May 3, was the start of this ordeal. My foot had been bothering me for around two weeks at that point, but that was when it got significantly worse. I attempted a run 4 days later but found the pain too much to take and had to cut it short. I followed that by close to two weeks completely off then tried again, only to make it no more than half a dozen steps before experiencing another "pop" and enough pain and swelling to push me to the doctor the next day, which was Friday, May 21.

All that said, I've had just one short run in 9 weeks and a little over 6 weeks now completely non-weight bearing. From all the research I've done, the average healing time for this injury is 10-14 weeks, so I haven't hit that yet. At the same time, the average time recommended for total non-weight bearing is 4-6 weeks, so I've passed that. Now, I realize all these figures are averages and every individual case is different, but I continue to struggle with the fact that I now have no swelling and no pain on weight bearing yet need to be on crutches for at least 4 more weeks.

In doing all my various research, I happened upon the blog of elite Canadian distance runner Reid Coolaset, who had this same injury around 18 months ago. I read his recount of the injury and his x-rays looked almost exactly the same as mine, although he was actually a little worse off because his bone cracked all the way through and mine didn't. I decided to shoot him an e-mail to ask some questions, and he was kind enough to respond with some good information. Among that information was the recommendation to do some light massage to increase the blood flow. He also said he was told that some light weight bearing as long as there is no pain helps the bone heal stronger, which is something I have always heard about all fractures. Additionally, he was non-weight bearing 6-7 weeks, followed by another 6 weeks or so of progressing back to the point where he started to run again. He also sought a second opinion as he got closer to being healed, and the second doc had him running 4 weeks earlier than the first doc was going to, so he said he was glad he got someone else to look at it. Finally, he actually healed up fine and ran a couple marathons within the first year of the break, which makes me feel a little better.

Ok, this is getting long, so I'm gonna wrap it up and make my point. I've decided not to seek a second opinion for the time being, because there's no way this thing is gonna be healed before my next visit with my current doc (July 30th) anyway. I'm also going to get the bone stimulator (pending insurance), because I feel like that can only help things. Finally, I'm going to begin progressively more weight bearing, using pain as my guide, and see what happens. I'm still using crutches for the most part right now and plan to continue to use them for at least 2 more weeks. At that point I will have done at least some walking around and have a gauge on how my foot is reacting. If I'm getting no pain and no swelling (which is the case so far), I may toss the crutches for the second half of the month. Believe me, I'm not going to do anything stupid. The first hint of pain, and I mean it, and I will be back to total non-weight bearing. I'm not about to screw up the last several weeks of progress. At the same time, I feel like I need to at least start to test things a little based on the way I'm feeling, because I don't want to hold myself back by being overly conservative. We'll see what happens.