D@#$ near broke it off!

I visited the podiatrist today, very friendly practice, to have a closer look at the foot pain and swelling. This was my first time seeing a podiatrist, so I wasn't sure what to expect. In the visit went well, the Dr. asked about the pain, pressed in a few spots to see how my pain was, and used a tuning fork to vibrate individual bones (ankles and metatarsals) to check for pain. There wasn't any pain with the tuning fork, which he said would be all but conclusive evidence of a stress fracture, but he wanted x-rays just in case. He figured that the symptoms in the left foot were from me favoring the right foot so we only took images of the right foot and ankle.

The assistant stepped me through the x-ray routine and took me back to the examination room. A few minutes later the Dr. was back. He pulled up the images on the computer and we looked at them together. The Ankles were fine, but when he increased adjusted the noise reduction on the film we could see a slight, very slight line across the second metatarsal. Yup, a stress fraction, but a very minor one. It was kind of weird when he announced this to me, he almost looked at me accusingly, like I had sinned or something. Anyway, no need for a boot, just be nice to it for a few more weeks (looking back at when the pain began I must be in week 2 now) and it will heal.

This really sucks, but it is a good lesson for me, I should still have time for the 5k I'm signed up for and it has helped me realize that I need to take it easier. I have Marathoning for Mortals on hold at the library (it is due back today) so I have vowed to read it and stick to the training schedule as suggested and if my feet start telling me that I'm going too hard, I'll back off even more.