After several months of running with foot pain, working through a few different diagnoses and treatments, Last month, when I finally had my MRI done and received the word that I was dealing with a fractured Sesamoid bone in my foot, I had to come to grips with the probability that I would most likely need surgery. Probability, about 95%.
After about a month of waiting, yesterday finally came. The day of my appointment with Dr Anderson and hoping to find out more answers.
I definitely got answers! Some may say it wasn’t the answers or news I was looking for, but over the last several weeks, I have come to terms with whatever it became. And everything that I anticipated came to the forefront.
Not only did I fracture my Sesamoid bone, I pretty much shattered it. There would be no healing of the bone. I was told that I did have a few options. The first would be different inserts for my shoes to better alleviate the pressure on the ball of my foot. Over time, the inflammation would go down and the area would “heal” itself to “protect the area” but I would probably never run pain free again. Sorry, this doesn’t fall into the options as a viable option. I have goals to achieve and races to run!
Only other option, I was having surgery.
Several people have asked WHERE exactly is the sesamoid bone, how will they fix it etc. Honestly, up until about 6 months ago, I never even heard of this bone!
The above x-ray and the area circled in purple shows the Sesamoid bone and the severe inflammation. When I saw the images from the MRI yesterday, even with my untrained eye, I could see the damage! This bone is actually not IN the toe, but rather part of the ball of your foot. It functions as part of the support system for your toe as well as the ball of your foot. You actually have 2 of them on each foot. One bigger one and one smaller one. Even the “big” one is only about the size of a pea. Unfortunately, I pretty much destroyed the larger one.
They will be going in and removing the damaged bone. Yup, taking it right out! They will then take one of the nearby tendons and move it into the place where the bone was. They need to do this so that I have something there to help with stability etc. I am still trying to figure out how this all doesn’t hurt more than it does and how I am even walking with a broken bone in the ball of my foot! No matter what, it sucks. I can’t do what I love and I am ready to do what I need to do in order to get back to my life!
Eve though I can’t run, I have an amazing tribe of friends that have really helped keep me moving! I can still walk so there have been many miles with them over the last few weeks!
So, on Thursday (January 23rd) I’ll be heading to Belling for surgery. The surgery itself only takes about 70 minutes but I’ll pretty much be there all day between prep, surgery and recovery, but I get to go home the same day! Yay!
Recovery will be the toughest part for me… because you all know that I don’t like to sit still! 2-3 weeks completely non weight bearing (don’t worry, I’m working on getting one of those cool knee scooters so I can hopefully get around a little easier!). After that, 3-6 weeks in a boot. 3 months from the date of surgery (if all goes well) I can start running again.
I know it will take some time to get back to where I was before but I am hoping that I will be able to keep myself active enough over the next 2 months that I won’t lose all my fitness. I have a great strength trainer that is already thinking ahead to exercises that I can do that will keep the weight and pressure off my foot.
Here’s to moving forward, getting things taken area of and getting back to my normal life!
The Crazy Hamster may be down, but I’m not giving up!
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