11.14.2007

An answer

I saw Dr. John Reach of Yale Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation yesterday. He is doctor number five. He gained my trust in mere minutes. He spent the better part of an hour with me. He did a thorough examination of my foot and looked at the wear pattern on my marathon shoes. He couldn't figure out what was wrong with my foot by simply examining it, but he said that the wear pattern on my shoes is normal and that, since they are stability shoes, they might be overstabilizing my foot. He then went to an ultrasound tool. He found some thickening of my posterior tibialis tendon and some fluid in my ankle joint. He thinks that I have an osteochondral lesion and/or a spring ligament rupture/tear, both of which, he assured me, can be treated. For my sake, he'd much rather have it be the osteochondral lesion, which likely resulted from a sprained or twisted ankle (something done when drunk, probably, and of course, I have no recollection of this). If it's a spring ligament rupture/tear, then running marathons and long distances will be more of a challenge. If the MRI shows neither one of these possible diagnoses, then we can blame running shoes.

My goal is to write here about my next run.

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