This morning was my follow-up x-ray to see how my stress fracture has healed. I showed up, and my PA showed me images from the MRI. Terrifying. As he pointed out, the bones of my leg and forefoot were black in the MRI image, but the area around my heel was all white due to fluid and inflammation. In an alternate view, the bones were white except for a jagged black line that seemed to separate my heel from the rest of my foot. That, he told me, was the stress fracture. It looked so severe and huge, and reminded me how strange that I wasn't in pain at all when the MRI was done.
So, a quick x-ray was on the docket for today. I was seated on a table and two x-rays were taken, one from the side, and one from the sole of my foot.
Within minutes I was back with my PA, and he was pointing out the white smudgy line indicating that my heel was healing.
"BUT," he said, "It takes 3 months to totally heal. You're looking good, so you can start to walk to work again, but a week or two more on the elliptical is in order, and then you can start running."
So it should look like this: 2 more weeks on the elliptical. Then slowly running a mile, then taking the next day off to see how it feels. Stay at 1 mile runs for a week or two, then increase to 1.5 mile runs.
I'm thinking that I'll start the Running101 podcast from week 4 after a week more on the elliptical, and I'll do it on a treadmill. (refresher: week 4 is four intervals of four minutes running at an easy pace, with recovery walks in between. I'll do the podcast for a few weeks on the treadmill, then switch to outside.
And new shoes. Any suggestions? I pronate slightly, and need extra support for my heels. Thoughts? I'm open to anything.
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