My Foot

If you've seen me recently you might have noticed that I'm currently in a walking cast.

The first question that would typically follow this discovery is "Oh no, what happened!?!"

My response is usually very casually "Oh, I broke my foot."

Which is then almost always followed by "How did you do that!?!"

I hate this questions, mainly because there is no short answer for it and I don't want to give the long version to each person I see.  So, here it is.  

I have a stress fracture in my foot.  Stress fractures are normally caused from overuse (like runners, or sports players.)  The constant stress on the bones and muscles from overuse causes the bone to weaken and eventually forms a tiny crack.  I know what you're thinking...'I bet Marti's been secretly running all these years without telling anyone!'  I assure you this is not the case.  So what is it?

I have a muscular problem in my leg.  The muscles in the left leg are abnormally tight and overtime have put undue stress on certain parts of my foot.  Last year when I was dealing with an awful case of Plantar Fasciitis, it was due to the tension in my calf and fascia.  After almost a year of Physical Therapy and stretching the problem got better.  My Doctor thinks the amount of stretching I had to do last year affected the bones in my foot.  Muscles are attached to bones so when you stretch muscles, the bones feel it.  He thinks that with my foot/leg already having some other issues, that the stress put on the bones from stretching cause them to weaken and now break.  

I asked him how long a stress fracture normally takes to heal in a normal person.  This was his exact response... "in a normal person I wold expect it to heal in 6 to 8 week...but you're not normal."

I could be in this boot for awhile.  No need to ask me how it feels, it's doesn't really hurt at all.  It's just annoying.  I'm trying to ignore it.  Feel free to do so as well.