Oh buminess…. arthritis. Yes I have have been told I have arthritis and – quite quickly – managed to bag some promising treatment.
Being told I had arthritis made me feel old. Isn’t arthritis meant to be an old person’s problem? Obviously not, unless 61 has suddenly become “old”.
Regular readers will know that might right foot has been painful for the last two years. Eighteen months ago I went to my Doctor, who at the time, was a runner and he took quite a lot of interest in it. He took time to examine my foot and discuss running. He thought the best thing was to illuminate the possibility of a fractured bone (one of the long, slender bones in the mid foot). He organised an x-ray which was done quickly although it took ages to find the result was no broken bones, which I assumed was the case.
Next followed a change of Doctor and a challenge in trying to get the new one to show much interest. “Have you tried Paracetamol?” was the annoying advice. Eventually the new Doctor, who is not a runner, referred me for some physiotherapy and this seemed to help. The new Doctor didn’t seem to understand or appreciate how good running was for me, mentally and physically.
Over the next year or so I followed the physiotherapist’s advice about keeping my foot flexible and this included standing on one foot to deliberately wobble around while brushing my teeth! While this physiotherapy has worked to a point, my foot has still been painful. The time I could run was limited to 30 minutes, even with a dose paracetamol beforehand.
The private route
Feeling that I wasn’t getting anywhere with my GP, I decided to take the private route, So instead of a rushed telephone appointment at a random time in the day, for £160 you get a 30 minute face to face appointment with no rushed agenda in a private hospital.
Having carefully examined both of my feet, this Doctor said she didn’t know what the problem was but did rule a few things out. There were no deformities, my feet were warm and she could feel a pulse in the right place. She suggested an MRI scan would be the most revealing, to peel back the skin (so to speak) and take a good look inside.
So you can see the MRI scan above. The outcome of this was to refer me to a foot specialist in the same hospital who immediately knew what the problem was. ARTHRITIS! More specifically degenerative arthritis, which he explained was through wear and tear – probably running. In the circled area above, there are three bones that come together as one joint and that is where the problem is – the larger bone is a lighter shade and that is the arthritis.
The treatment, offered to me the very next day, was a steroid injection right into the joint. So far this is working okay but it is not a cure, just temporary relief. How long very much depends on me, the extent of the arthritis and the luck of the draw but it should help for at least a few months.
To give up running?
As for running, the advice is to find another activity, a low impact activity, such as cycling, swimming etc. I will need these steroid injections in the future, hopefully via the National Health Service, as they are quite expensive. Eventually surgery might be needed but not yet.
I cannot let this go without saying more and yet this is not the time. For now, let me say running has meant so much to me for about the last 15 years and I am finding it difficult to accept that I am no longer a runner, not even a “Parkrunner”. I have difficulty in accepting that I have run my last 10k, let alone dreams of more half marathons and full marathons.
No doubt I’ll be reflecting on this over the coming days and weeks and, even more so, weighing up what can replace being a runner. Watch this space!