What's up Doc?

My (rather good looking) Orthopedist walked in and sat down after looking at my X-rays and said "Well, at least we know what's wrong with your foot now".  

He kept talking, but I can't remember what he said because I was waiting on him to spit out the official diagnosis. I finally just asked "Is it a stress fracture?", to which he replied "yes", and then he proceeded to show me the print-out of the X-rays.    The first one was taken 3 weeks ago (2 days after I began feeling pain) and there were no signs of any damage at that time (see image below).

Stress fractures rarely show up in X-rays until the healing process begins.  After new bone begins to grow as part of the healing phase, it shows up as a cloudy white spot surrounding the location of the fracture.  It is barely visible on this image below, but I circled the area (you can click on the image to enlarge it).

After "the revelation" I was then given "the talk", which brought tears to my eyes.  "You need to wear this special post-op shoe for at least 3 weeks.  I know it's not attractive, but you need to wear it everywhere you go.  Of course no running and, for now, no cycling either."  [click here to play Sad Trombone]

I think he noticed I was trying to hold back tears as I asked with a shaky 'I'm not going to cry in front of this hot doctor voice', "So...I can't cycle at all?  Not even on my indoor trainer on light resistance? I've been doing that and it only seems to hurt with more resistance".  He replied, "If you can ride with that shoe on, then I guess that's ok.  But you HAVE to keep the shoe on." 

Well, I suppose I can give that a whirl.  I may develop some muscle imbalances, but I just need to keep lifting weights and try to keep strong.  And the pool will be my new best friend for now :) 

I'm trying my best to stay positive, but it's really difficult when I'm starting to cross off races from my list.  The first to get dropped is the Peachtree Road Race 10K on July 4th.  I was really looking forward to running that race this year :(  I'm not giving up hope yet for the last 2 triathlons...I'm hoping at the very least to be able to do the Aquabike option for those if I'm not cleared to run the distance yet.  The thing with this stress fracture is that once it heals, I have to be very careful with easing back into running and really cannot rush the process. 

I have to keep reminding myself that there will be other race seasons and there is plenty of time to accomplish my goals. They may not be accomplished within the initial time frame I set for myself, but I will be able to reach them nonetheless.  Something good comes out of every struggle...and maybe this is just what I need in order to improve my swimming :) 

 Have a great weekend everyone!