Wednesday, December 1, 2010

more surgery?

After OPSF a few weeks ago, I realized I had to do something about the cyst on the bottom of my foot as I could not place full weight on it without enduring pain. The Podiatrist stuck a needle in it (ouch!), but couldn't get anything out of it. A MRI of the foot confirmed the cyst was a solid, homogeneous mass -- likely a ganglion cyst & that it didn't appear to be malignant. The recommendation was to have it removed.


Ever since then, I've been debating whether to have this surgery, which would likely put me out of action for a minimum of 2-3 weeks (according to the Podiatrist). The thing is, I'm still several months away from recovering from my last stay in the hospital! As an alternative to surgery, I've discovered that if I modified my shoes, I could reduce the pain significantly. Adding another pad & making a hole in both inserts, I can keep most of the pressure off. But, raising the foot just this small amount makes it feel like I'm wearing elevated shoes and makes my toes prone to blisters on the TOP! Also, a hole in the side of my shoe allows some lateral relief. At a training run at Tecumseh this last Saturday, I added another pair of socks & plenty of lube & was able to finish the run without alot of pain. Biggest problem at the run was not the cyst, but being out of shape -- just been missing too much training time.


minimalistic footwear for around the house:


So, right now, with the shoe modification, the Tecumseh Marathon is a go & surgery is on hold. Based on the very slow training run, it looks like I won't be able to improve on my disappointing time of last year (when I was still recovering from the swine flu). Based on the pace I was able to keep on the training run, I'm going to have to downgrade my goal this year to 6 hours instead of 5.

Tecumseh training run crew, courtesy of Terry Fletcher:



6 comments:

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Chris Ⓥ said...

Hey Ed,

Again, you're an animal...still running the Tecumseh Marathon! Wow. If the surgery is low-risk and has a good chance on getting rid of that cyst for god, go for it sooner rather than later. Maybe right after Tecumseh? You are already out of shape...what's another 2-3 weeks!? Get in a good 26 mile training run, have surgery, and recover. You DEFINITELY want to be pain free by spring time. What ever you do, good luck with the marathon and a full recovery.

ed said...

Thanks Barefoot Chris!

Unlike for most folk, winter is the prime running season for me as I can't take heat. If it was summer, there would be no hesitation with surgery. Maybe I'll decide when after Tecumseh.

I have set a "long" term goal of finishing MMT 100 in May (I'm in the lottery), so I will approach Tecumseh & other races this winter as training runs towards that goal.

Hope to see you at LBL or at McNaughton Park. Maybe by then I'll have a callus where my cyst is at & I can try some training in Vibrams this spring.

Chris Ⓥ said...

I'm tentatively planning on doing the marathon at LBL and the 50 miler at McNaughton Park.

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