Neuroma Reason

Oh, the agony of da feet! For years now, I have been dealing with this neuroma between the third and fourth metatarsals in my left foot. The pain has gotten worse when I started marathon walk training for TNT in 2005, and has particularly flared up the last two years for my Nashville and Seattle events.

Since Seattle, there is no rhyme or reason to the pain – or “neuroma reason” as my friend Kristi quipped so wittingly a few weeks ago. It might be tolerable on a long hike, then hurt like crazy on a three mile run. Or it might even hurt after an easy two mile walk. I’ve tried resting it a lot, and I’ve tried being active. I can’t predict when it will hurt and how much. The one constant is that is that, eventually, it will hurt, and in general, it hurts more and more often with – for me – fairly easy activity.

All the alcohol shots have not taken care of the problem. So I’ve decided to have surgery for it and scheduled it today for a few weeks from now. I can’t say I am looking forward to it, but I think it needs to be done, and there appears to be a 50-80% chance of significant improvement if I have the surgery.

It will probably mean two to three weeks totally off my feet, which will be very strange. And then maybe reduced activity for another month, then slowly getting back into things and hopefully working up to running late in the winter. I hate to think of missing the Monument Avenue 10K, so I am hoping it will be healed enough for me to walk it, if not run some of it.

I hope this does the trick, and I can put this long-lasting foot pain in my rear view mirror in the next couple of months. I depend on my feet for enjoying things in life too much to keep being encumbered by it.