Mystery Solved?

Chaos Theory proposes that an action taking place anywhere in the world can influence phenomena elsewhere. Who could have imagined that something taking place years ago would result in my mysterious injury?


For a long time, I did this...



and this...
and for sure, this...

that resulted in this...

In my case, the bone was dead by the time I sought treatment (16 years ago). The bones could not be removed because a nerve ran through the mess. I stopped dancing and gradually the pain faded from memory.

What I didn't know was that over time the problem would become more complicated and lead to a kind of arthitic condition know as Hallux Rigidus. No, this is not my toe, but mine looks similar. Mine is not really a bunion, but definitely a deformity.

When I picked up running, I do recall the ball of my foot and the above area hurting. With better shoes and time, it quit hurting. Unfortunately, it probably stopped hurting because I started doing this in a major way...
Again, I am an anomaly because even though the above picture is supination, my supination wasn't necessarily seen from the ankle. And it wasn't caused by weak hips, or other areas of the body. My supination was/is directly from the foot; caused by a general avoidance of the entire ball of foot pain. Basically, I run on the outside edge of my entire foot. Of course, this led to all kinds of biomechanical issues including hip pain, back pain, knee pain, toe pain, ankle rolls, and eventually an avulsion tear and peroneal subluxation.

So, who gets credit for finally figuring this out? No one really. It was purely an accident. When I started running just over a month ago, I had to work on my gait, including my foot plant and toe off. Naturally, the ball of foot pain came screeching back, halting all efforts to even walk normally.

Back I went to the doctor, who in turn, felt bad for never checking my big toe joint. How can I fault him for that considering I never even mentioned a previous fracture there?

The mystery is solved. You will laugh when you see my treatment plan. Yes, it works. No pain after one day of using it in my Wave Riders. One day later, I was able to run in my non-problematic Cascadias without pain. Off to the running store to invest in new running shoes; ones that don't bend right at that joint, and ones that offer lateral stability and no medial posting.
Not sure there is a moral of this story except that medical history is always important. Even the kind that happened 16 years ago.