I sought a second opinion this morning and learned that I had been walking about for the past 3 months with a fracture in one of my metatarsals.
Interestingly, I had correctly diagnosed my own condition when I first hobbled over to see a private GP 3 months ago, only to be told (wrongly) that I had simply pulled a tendon.
How did I know what it was? Because I am a football fan and learned all about metatarsals [when Wayne Rooney broke his foot](http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/health_and_fitness/4283136.stm). And at the time, the pain was great and it felt like I had indeed broken something.
As I was told it was just a sprain, I treated my foot accordingly. I bandaged it daily – until my skin started to react to the bandage. I rubbed anti-inflammatory gel on it. I even got my foot vigorously massaged by a Chinese sinseh!
But colleagues noticed that my foot was taking longer than expected to heal. I couldn’t wear high-heeled shoes anymore, nor could I go to the gym. Some days it seemed like I was recovering; on other days the foot would swell up again.
The other thing that was strange was the pain sometimes shifted from the side of my foot, to different toe joints. How could this be explained?
The visit to a specialist and an X-Ray helped to shed some light. The third metatarsal was broken, and while the second and fourth metatarsals were fine, more weight was put on them and this may have inflamed the joints of those toes. That also explained why the area in the middle of my foot was generally sore and swollen.
All I can think of now, is the need to recover quickly in order to walk down the church aisle in a few months’ time.
On the bright side, I am really glad to have received care and concern from many people, particularly my colleagues (who are obviously in the right line of work for this sort of thing).
I also got my feet analysed and learned I had high arches, which places greater pressure on certain parts of my feet. So now I wear special insoles to redistribute the weight. I am also increasing my calcium intake and hope to gradually increase physical activity levels as my foot recovers.
When it comes to health, one must ‘toe’ the line… or ‘foot’ the bill!