My earliest memory of a problem with my foot was when I was about 12 years old. I was constantly spraining my ankle and having trouble with it. To the point where I always had to be taped and was usually in PT. I used to have this peculiar problem that when I did straddle kips on bars, and brought my feet back together, that I would have a ton of SHOOTING pain up my leg. It was weird and funny at the same time... I remember the coaches and I laughing about it because I used to put foam on the inside of my foot when I did bars to prevent this.
Eventually I went to a foot Dr. (I believe at the time it was a podiatrist) and he determined that I had an "extra" bone in my foot. Basically, the bone on the inside arch of my foot was much larger than it should be and put much more pressure on my foot than there should be, causing it to be weak and unstable. The only solution would be to surgically remove it.
Surgery was not an option for me at this age, while still growing. There was hope that I would "grow out of it" as I was older and eventually left the sport. So, as typically gymnasts do, I dealt with my foot and a plethora of other injuries that came my way until I was done.
Sometime around when I was 20-ish, and now coaching competitive gymnasts, I was having problems with my foot again. Although they had never stopped entirely, it sort of flared up on my activity level. It was summertime, I was working multiple jobs, including coaching, where I was on my feet all day. One morning, I woke up, and the entire top of my foot was black and blue.
It was sore, but as in my usual fashion, I just ignored it. Within a week it wasn't better and I went back to the Dr. I broke 4 bones in my foot and was casted. Again, the pressure in my foot, along with my activity just caused the bones to randomly break.
It stunk - I was in a cast for almost the entire summer. As I was coaching and it was the year routines were being changed, I got to travel to Reno to learn the new compulsory routines for my girls. In Reno, I must have been too into the routines, because I cracked my cast! The other coach and I ducked taped it until I we were home and I could be re-casted! After that, I broke my cast AGAIN!. I was then moved into a boot (I think the Dr. gave up on me).
Eventually I healed for the time being. We moved to Altanta, I stopped coaching and was much easier on my foot (aka, desk job). In Atlanta, I started working out quite a bit including lots of running, biking and weight lifting. Alas, my foot problems began again.
In Atlanta I went through a period of time where each morning, when I woke up, I wouldn't be able to straighten my left left. I had to hobble around, getting ready as it would slowly stretch out and then "be normal." It eventually got worse and worse and I went to see a Dr.
Lucky for me I found Resurgeons Orthopedics in Atlanta. They were WONDERFUL. The first Dr. I went to was a lower body Dr. and he recommended I see a foot specialist in the group. Dr. Womack. He was amazing. I can't remember what we did exactly (I'm sure we tried a boot, a brace, cortisone, PT, etc.) but eventually it was determined that it was time for surgery. Oh yes, they also discovered I had partially torn my posterior tibial tendon.
In the summer of 2006 (I was right around 23) I had surgery. It was a very interesting time in my life - my surgery was scheduled within 1 week of Brian and I closing on our first home and three months away from our wedding! It wasn't good timing but it was time to have it done.
In my non-technical terms, this is what they did:
- Removed extra bone on the inside of my foot.
- Repaired the torn tendon.
- Lengthened my calf muscle.
After the surgery I had a splint for 2 weeks, cast/crutches for around 2 months and an aircast/boot for another few. Of course I had PT for a long, long time. I believe it took close to 8-10 months to feel normal, and after almost a year, I could finally wear "normal" shoes, including HEELS which I had never previously been able to wear in my life!
My first surgery was a huge success.
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