Bone Spurs – Heel Pain

About 12 years ago I blew out my left ACL while skiing. I had recently moved to Gunnison, Colorado to attend college and there was this great ski area called Crested Butte just 30 minutes away. Shortly before Thanksgiving , during Free Ski, I rented a pair of skis and a friend of mine took me up there to give it a try. It had been 5 years since I had last skied. After spending a bit of time on the bunny slope I decided it was time for a longer run. Instead of going up the easy Keystone lift, my friend took me up the Silver Queen figuring we could find an easy way down. Needless to say (not on purpose as she is the sweetest girl ever) she took me down one of the harder runs. It was an icy run and if there are no bumps on it the ski resort calls it a blue run, if there are bumps on it is a black run. Well I of course was not ready for that run and I fell big time. My friend wanted to get ski patrol but I figured I could make it down. I eventually made it to the bottom and back to the car. My left knee was swelling and it was getting harder to walk but I was still able to walk.

The next morning, though I could not walk. I managed to crawl from my dorm room, across the hall to a friend’s room and get her out of bed. With her help I was able to get to the car, even after falling down on the ice – boy was that painful. At the hospital they guessed I had torn my ACL and gave me a knee brace that allowed me to get around without crunches and they told me to call an Orthopedic Surgeon on Monday.

Monday came and I did as I was told. The doctor confirmed the torn ACL, possible torn meniscus, and possible torn MCL. Let’s just say I did a number on my knee. I started physical therapy and eventually surgery was scheduled for March. My mom wanted to came out and help me with everything. She is the best.

Eventually I had the knee surgery and now everything is just fine – or so I think. Ever since I started running long distances, 8 plus miles I have been having issues that relate to my left leg. The Neurma that I blogged about here is on my left foot, the back pain I blogged about here is related to the left side of my body and now I am having heel pain on my left foot. The pain in my heal is worse in the morning and today for the first time I felt it during the beginning of my run but it quickly went away. The heel pain is probably related to Plantar Fasciitis which I have had some minor issues (pain in the morning) in the past. I had X-rays on my feet when the Neuorma started acting up (the doctors where thinking it as a stress fracture a first), the X-rays did show a bone spur on my heel.

It seems as if I can’t get past a certain number of miles without having some pain or some issue. Do anyone of you who do double digits have issues with pain? At this point I am just going to keep going and see what happens. I could probably use a new pair of shoes but at this point that is hard because the money is not in the bank for new shoes.