Toe Bones

I have a new doctor, since I now have an HMO with my latest job. (As an aside, letting go of my old doctor and the hospital and the allergist was one of the hardest things ever. I met my doctor the first week I moved here.)

My new doctor is fine, though, and I like her, and with the HMO I pay half the premium and have more comprehensive coverage, so. Although when scheduling my mammogram, the center instructed me to bring a film of my last mammogram as a benchmark. Because I have those just hanging around my house. In fact, I put them on coffee mugs for Christmas gifts. What the hell?

When I told my doctor that my left foot continues to have pain issues (I was unable to run in last year's Chicago marathon because of it), she sent me to a specialist in the suburbs.

This is the major drawback to the new system. In my old system, I went to a big hospital complex downtown, where going from one specialist to another was a matter of a few floors or a half-block walk. Now, I had to rent a shared car and, Google Map laid out on the dashboard, make my paranoid way to the suburbs.

The foot doctor was great, though, and presented the first real diagnosis that made sense: my metatarsal had come loose from my plantar plate (bottom of my foot), and was going where it shouldn't. Then came the resident with the basin of warm water and the plaster to make a mold of my feet for orthotics. This should help. If not, there's surgery. I don't care; I just want my foot to be normal again, because the X-rays are not pretty. If the bones of the foot should be three-part harmony, mine are a bee-bop cacophony.

One good thing is that the doctor said running was not a problem. I have a good no-drop shoe with a wide toe box (Altras - excellent running shoes), and I've been starting up again. I can knock out three miles with only minor issues (mostly post-run swelling and tightness), so I'm going to try to build up enough that I can at least get some 5Ks under my belt. Dare I hope for another half-marathon this year?