Running, or not running

 

I have always had an interest and a desire to run. I once tried track in high school, but I was already so heavy that it didn’t work out very well. 

Two years ago I picked up running and fell in love. I ran the same trail nearly every day bringing my distance from an eighth of a mile to six miles.  I watched the blackberries ripen, the leaves fall. I jumped over puddles and fallen trees when the wind storm came.  I ran in 17 degree weather with snot frozen to my face…..  I ran. 

Then came the news that I was pregnant and that put a stop to the running.  After Kaden’s birth in Oct I tried to do the Thanksgiving day turkey trot and was sooo frustrated that I couldn’t run the whole thing.  Since that day it has been hard for me to get back into the love of running.

So when I was invited to run the Seafair Torchlight parade with a bunch of friends, I jumped on the opportunity.  At the beginning of the race, there it was. The adrenaline, the excitement, the rush… The love of running and feeling my body and it’s power.

This race in particular was awesome in that it goes along the parade route just before the parade and so you have an audience.  At first it made me really nervous, but as you run by all the kids and some adults stand at the side cheering you on and sticking out their hands for you to smack as you run by. It’s a lot like having your own fan club.

So, I am running again. Or maybe not. Just like Murphy’s law to knock you out of the race just when you begin to enjoy it.

Here is my lovely left foot. All prepped for surgery.  The knot on the isde under my big toe? That would be then end of the far right bone sticking out because it is severely misaligned.  A bunion, been there all my life but has gotten worse over the past few years.  Mine is not painful, but when added to the fact that I wear a size 12 shoe, it does make it hard to find shoes that fit properly.  So, when our deductible was reached thanks to our darling children, we decided to go ahead and have it taken care of while we only had to pay 15 %.

The photo on the left is a tad blurry, but you can see how misaligned that bone is. There is not supposed to be a gap or an angle there.  It is also a good pic of what a bunion formation actually is.  I have discovered there is a lot of misinformation surrounding bunions and what it takes to treat them.

And here is a pic of my new hardware.  He put a steel plate over that joint and screwed it with two screws in top, two in the bottom and one running parallel to the plate. Looks painful you say?  Yep, can’t disagree with you there.  More annoying than the pain is the slow, so very slow,,, recovery process.  Six weeks of non-weight bearing.  Yeah, it’s one thing to say six weeks, an entirely different matter to live through those six weeks.  There were times I literally thought I was going crazy.  My mom came for four weeks and Matt and the kids really stepped it up.  The kids got some great meals from friends at church and I spent the best part of a month in bed.  Frustrating!!

I am thankful to have had it done and to have the insurance to cover it but I still have fears that I wont be able to run again or do hot yoga, my other beloved activity.

So, here is my nice new straight and very swollen still foot compared with my right which was identical to my left before surgery.  See how the toe on my right is almost overlapping the next toe over? Yeah, not necessarily a good thing.

At my five week check up doc said everything was ahead of schedule and he was really impressed with how the healing was coming. At that time  I traded in my knee scooter for this air cast and I can now walk with it for three weeks and then I can go into a normal shoe.

Just in time to let that one recover a bit before having the right one done in December.  Got to get them both in this year in order to enjoy the discount right?