Strong Beach! I hope you are having a great start to your week. I’m looking forward to this week since I will be accompanying the Long Beach Poly “Trackrabbits” to New York City for the National Indoor Track Championship! It will be an exciting time, which I will be sharing with you in my video blogs. You will see the exclusive behind the scenes footage and front row coverage of the races!
Remember, my next video blog is set to release this Friday—I hope you enjoy it. It’s a special feature with a few of Strong Beach’s finest. I visit with Travon Patterson, Donovan Warren, and Derrick Jones as they do a speed workout on the track at LBCC. They invited me out to hang out and try their workout. I had a blast! I hope I captured it well, but I will let you be the judge!
Now, back to the business at hand. Let’s answer some questions. If you have a question, be sure to send it—no question is stupid and if it’s off limits, I just won’t answer it! There is no column without your questions. Keep them coming—okay, here we go!
Doc,
I have a situation. I am a sprinter. My season is getting started and one morning I woke up to a fat foot! The top of my left foot is swollen and tender to the touch. Everyone has already given me their opinion and questioned me to no end: no, I have no history of trauma; no, an ant or a spider didn’t bite me; I have no circulation issue (I’m 17 and fit as can be); yes, I have tried to ice it (that works to freeze it but it’s only temporary).
I have pain upon walking, jogging, and sprinting. In face, I am limping right now. I have been to an acupuncturist, a school trainer, and my doctor at Kaiser. According to my medical history and background, it seems that the top two diagnoses are stress fracture or metatarsal ligament sprain. They both sound nasty to me. Either way, I just got put in a boot for now. They want me off of it and I am scheduled for an MRI next week. What kills me is the fact that I won’t get my results until the following week!!! Ahhhh!!!! That’s two weeks wasted just to try to figure out what this is! I am freaking out. Is there anything else I could be doing? Will time be lost? I’m afraid I might lose conditioning? Do you have any words of comfort? Does the Doc have any suggestions for me? Please help!
Runner in Panic
Hey There,
I am sorry to hear about your dilemma so early in your season. Yes, you do have a situation, indeed! I have gone over your question a few times and let’s get right down to the positives. The question is ligament sprain versus stress fracture. Check this out: Either way you will be in a boot for a few weeks! If it’s a ligament issue, with daily treatments like cold laser therapy, you can be out of that boot in 2-3 weeks! If you have a stress fracture, you can pretty much expect a 6-8 week waiting game. Not much treatment to be done there. Your concern about losing extra time is a non-issue. You are going to be in that boot either way. The thing I suggest is that you simply hope and pray you are suffering from a ligamentous issue, because in that case, you have hope of a shorter healing time. A ligament is also considered as soft tissue, so I can provide treatments to expedite your healing time.
My suggestion? Go ahead and start treatment immediately, as if you had a confirmed ligament sprain. This way, if it is confirmed two weeks from now, you will already have had two weeks of treatment under your belt. You might only be a week away from getting the boot off. I’ve seen some turn around completely in only two weeks! If it turns out to be a stress fracture, you can just as easily cease and desist your treatments and wait it out. In that case, two weeks of treatment is not necessarily time lost. Look at the bright side, you will have grown that much closer to your sports therapist!
Good luck on your season! This is not the end of the world! Be encouraged; it is still very early in the season. I can’t think of a better time during the season for this to happen. There is absolutely nothing crucial going on this early in the season. Take the time to heal, and then come back with a vengeance!!!
Hi Doc!
How are you? Fine I hope! I like reading your column. I think you are very funny as well as encouraging! I finally have a question for you. My son is a runner. He runs cross-country at school but he is really a distance guy. He runs the 10K, the half, as well as the full marathon. Nothing stops him. He runs in pain. He runs in the rain. I have seen him limping into the house, barely finishing his run. I say that to make this point: Nothing seems to stop my son! When I do see something that stops him, I become concerned. I know that this must be something serious.
I have convinced him to come in to see you at your office! That was big! The problem is that we won’t be able to get in for another week. I’m not sure if I should even bother sending this to you because I may end up in your office before I get a response back in your column. I figure I have nothing to lose so here it is:
He has these nasty blisters on the inner side of his foot (at the start of the arch). They fill up with fluid and he pops them. He can barely walk, so he hasn’t been running lately. I see it depressing him, Doc. I need to get him better so my baby can start running again. As far as a history, I can just tell you that he never complained about his feet until AFTER he was fitted for orthotics about a month ago. He has been wearing the same pair of Brooks (from one of those runner stores) for maybe the past six months. He runs on the grass, sand, and asphalt. He probably averages about 40 miles/week. He is 5’8” and about 145 pounds. I don’t know what else to tell you. I just don’t know what to do other than wait for our appointment.
Jeremy’s Mom
Hi Mom!
I’m guessing you couldn’t get our schedules to line up at the right time, because I know I had openings this week. I look forward to getting you guys in here. Until then, let’s talk about his shoes and orthotics. If he is blistering along the inner side of his foot, he is pronating. This means his foot/ankle joint rolls inward while making contact with the ground. This inward roll is most likely the reason he was fitted for orthotics. The new orthotic should now block this inward roll. Now his shoes might be the issue. If you went to a typical runner’s store, they fit him with a shoe for pronation. This shoe is built up more on the inside to block pronation. If he is running in those same shoes and puts an orthotic inside, he now has excess protection. He might have so much support built up along the inner foot that his foot is now chaffing against the orthotic.
I think it’s about time for another pair of running shoes. If he is running 40-50 miles/week, he is long overdue. This time when purchasing his next pair, he should get a shoe with more of a NEUTRAL build. He already has pronation protection in his orthotic. I’d also recommend a good thick gel insole to cushion the outer edges of his orthotic. For now, keep it clean (the blister) and let it breathe. I will probably laser it, wrap it up, check his shoes, and then put him on a treadmill to see if he can go! See you soon!
As always, that was fun! Thanks for your questions and thanks for reading! Sometimes the questions get backed up because we try to keep the column limited to 1500 words. If your question is long and my answers go long, 2-3 is all I can typically get answered in a single entry. Sometimes I edit/shorten the questions so that they fit! You would be surprised how long they can get. If it is something crucial or time sensitive, I will elect to push that question to the top of the pile. Sometimes I might answer you directly via email. Other times I will tell you that you should just go see your doctor.
Remember to give me as much detail as you possibly can. It helps me to get a better picture of what we are dealing with. I hope I was helpful and someone else’s question may have helped you with your question. Thanks for reading. Until next time, stay Strong Beach!
To visit Doc’s website, click here, and buy his book, What I’ve Learned From Your Kids. Email questions to Doc ataskdoc@docdossman.com.
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