Dancing the Hokey Pokey

You put your left foot in, you put your left foot out...
These days it does feel a bit like dancing the hokey pokey. In the podiatrist's office my right foot, after careful inspection of x-rays and some pulling and prodding is ruled arthritic and proclaimed unsuitable for fast running. Actually, it's just the big toe that is screaming: "Woe is me" every time we deviate from snail's pace to something that resembles running. Compensating only gets you so far (which is not very far at all). I file this mentally under" Big Toe Woe" so it makes at least for an interesting headline and therefore blog worthy.
After much googling (unfortunately, this does not a doctor make) I at least find some hope in ongoing research at the University of Freiburg, Germany. Seems they might be able to eventually harvest some cells, grow new cartilage in vitro and then give same back to the arthritically handicapped. Sounds good enough for me to postpone an unappealing procedure called "Fusion of the Big Toe Joint". I am still running, albeit not very fast. Sometimes it just counts to be outside and we are in it for the long run, right? I am planning to do this until I cross the final finish line, so to speak! (and who knows his or her own expiration date? We have to think longevity here!)
However, least we forget, we do usually come with two feet. One bad foot makes you compensate, two bad feet makes you - STOP!
This time I don't even really need a podiatrist. The pain in the morning, when getting up, is familiar. A nail pushed through the heel sounds painful and unfortunately, it is.
We are at the beginning of July when, after an easy 45 minutes, I cannot bear weight after running. I am a little surprised, since I have been pampering this baby with all the knowledge I possess which after so many years of running and competing is quite a bit. It does come with the territory, literally and figuratively speaking.
The injury has a name, Plantar Fasciitis and those of us who have suffered a bad bout of it, sigh right now and murmur deep down inside: "Thank God it's not me." - which is TOTALLY understandable. 2003 it put an end to a really nice streak of training and running and kept me in the gym and off the trails for 6 months. After that, which much help and custom orthotics, it healed and since my professional and private life did not leave much time for competitive running my maintenance training kept any potential flare ups at bay.
Enter the year 2010 and I feel that I still have some unfinished business with running. Despite the evil right foot, my left is good enough and the injury long past remembering. However, 30 years of running have made me cautious enough that my build up in training is slow and calculated and therefore improvement comes in small steps, but come it does.
Fast forward to July when fate pushes the stop button. What seems like a temporary set back turns out to be a lot more, namely that nothing that will usually deal with this injury helps. Dragging myself to Dr. Podiatrist just confirms that this will need major intervention. Steroids and surgical intervention are not advised since I may not run again after, and conservative measures have been tried and failed.
So there is one thing left: Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy. High frequency sound waves will be applied to the obstinate heel, under anesthesia, and then the heel should, well, heal.
(The treatment encourages formation of new blood vessels and this in return should make the inflammation go away - simply put)
I am putting my faith and my hope in this.
It has been perfect running weather for the past weeks and I am aching to go. Well, even to walk would be good right now, because in this new life I have been having trouble even doing that.
So I am looking forward to being shocked and I am begging my heal to cooperate and to make a speedy recovery. And I vow here: even though "Speedy" was my nickname in a former running life, I will be content with being able to run again, I will not complain even when every muscle fiber screams in agony when running again and I will not try anymore to chase down every guy who has the audacity of passing me.
Well, let's vow for achieving at least two out of three, right? ;) And it is my dirty little secret which two I have picked already....