Further proof that I am a freak of nature.

A little over two weeks ago, out of the blue, I started having stabbing pains in my left foot. When I saw the chiropractor the following Monday, I mentioned it. He aligned my toes (which feels about as creepy as it sounds) and poked and prodded a little, and suggested I see a podiatrist, because I might have Morton's neuroma.

I read up on it, freaked out, and made the podiatrist appointment. (I didn't post anything here on the irrational "maybe if I don't mention it it won't be real" theory of life). The symptoms seemed to match, and once it was pointed out to me that there were more options than just joints and muscles, the stabbing pain was easily identifiable to me as nerve pain. (Yes, I can identify nerve pain. I have slippery veins, and an over-enthusiastic blood-draw once made me quite acquainted with it).

The podiatrist appointment was yesterday, and the results were surprising. While the general location for Morton's neuroma (between the third and fourth toes) is right, the pain from that should be right between the metatarsals (the "knuckles" of the foot). While I think the nerve pain may have originated there, the pain that I have when somebody pokes at it is actually farther up the foot.

Odds are good that I have one (or more) stress fractures. When the podiatrist suggested this, I thought about the tingling I have in the foot when I pay attention to it (which mostly I don't--I block constant pains fairly strongly. It's new pains that tend to surprise me into noticing) and decided that, while nothing like the pain I originally felt when I stress-fractured my collarbone, the tingling really is like the after-effects of that fracture.

We can't figure out what could have caused the fracture(s). I wasn't doing anything exciting and have no point of injury that I'm aware of. But, as you may have noticed by now, I am a freak of nature. When I fractured my collarbone some years ago, it was the result of doing physical therapy for some weeks. For all I know, I could have done it while breaking in the new hiking boots at Rites this year and just been blocking the low-level pain. I'm a walker. It's what I do for exercise, it's what I do when I need to think . . . And feet don't heal well unless you take the time to give them a little rest.

Helping J and M move on Saturday almost certain exacerbated it, but even so, it was at a level I didn't really notice on Monday.

The initial treatment for either the stress fracture or the Morton's neuroma would be the same: take ibuprofen or naproxen consistently, ice it a little at night, and wear stiff-soled sandals. (Alternately, they prescribed a surgical shoe for me if my Chacos doesn't seem to be doing the trick, but I'm hoping to avoid that). So, after being kicked out of my high heels as a general rule by the chiropractor, I have now been kicked out of my sneakers by the podiatrist.

Today in sandals has been an enlightening experience. With the aggravation from having helped J and M move, I find that I notice the pain a lot more in the sandals. I think the tight lacing of the sneakers was actually providing a kind of splinting effect. Unfortunately, it puts pressure on the part of the foot that doesn't need it and doesn't brace it where it needs to be braced in order to heal.

X-rays were not suggested. There are really only two reasons you choose not to x-ray. One is if confirmation of the break doesn't make any difference (when you think you broke a toe, you just tape it to the one next to it) and the other is when the expected fractures are anticipated to be so small that an x-ray wouldn't show them: You'd need an MRI. I'm guessing this is the latter, based on the fact that it doesn't hurt nearly as much as when I hairlined the collarbone and that the next steps for really separating out the possibility of fracture from the possibility of neuroma still don't include x-rays.

With that said, the stabbing pain I felt may still be a small Morton's neuroma. Which isn't to say that I haven't, oh, been walking a little funny because of the fracture and putting stress on the metatarsals which inflamed the nerve sheath which caused the neuroma, or some other chain of causality like that. But based on the fact that I don't scream when certain places in my foot are poked and prodded, if it is a neuroma, the podiatrist says it's a small one, and likely amenable to treatment. Nowhere near needing surgery. Or even a cortisone shot. This makes me very happy.

I'm still a freak of nature. But I don't feel quite so much like my genetic hand of cards is an inside straight that I drew for and missed, today.