Went to the hospital yesterday to get the result of a scan on my foot. I'm a professional dancer, but apart from teaching, Â I haven't been dancing much since last Christmas due to problems with my foot. I'd thought it would pass, Â even gave up teaching to give it time to get better. But the pain never really went away, and eventually I went to the doctor, had an X-ray to rule out a stress fracture, was referred to a podiatrist, Â given two different insoles, referred to a podiatric surgeon and finally sent for an ultrasound. At this point, the suspected cause was a tear to a ligament in the foot.
The ultrasound didn't show a tear, but it still hasn't been ruled out. What I did learn was that the underlying problem is a minor congenital malformation in the foot, which has now caught up with me due to my choice of career.
I now face the choice of how to proceed:
a) I can continue with insoles and supportive footwear and hope that it will eventually improve, Â but this leaves me unable to dance and most likely means retiring from dancing now.
b) I can have steroid injections, Â which may or may not help, but with it comes a host of possible side effects, Â including making things much worse. On the upside, I would probably be able to dance for some time.
c) I can have surgery, probably the best chance of long-term improvement. However, no surgery is without risk, and the recovery time would be fairly long, not to mention rehabilitation time. Add to that the fact that I probably only have another five years left as a dancer, is it worth it?
I know many people face far worse, but I guess I just always assumed that when the time for retirement came, I'd be ready for it, that I would choose to retire because I'd done what I wanted to do.
So it looks like I have a big decision to make...
Dennis
The ultrasound didn't show a tear, but it still hasn't been ruled out. What I did learn was that the underlying problem is a minor congenital malformation in the foot, which has now caught up with me due to my choice of career.
I now face the choice of how to proceed:
a) I can continue with insoles and supportive footwear and hope that it will eventually improve, Â but this leaves me unable to dance and most likely means retiring from dancing now.
b) I can have steroid injections, Â which may or may not help, but with it comes a host of possible side effects, Â including making things much worse. On the upside, I would probably be able to dance for some time.
c) I can have surgery, probably the best chance of long-term improvement. However, no surgery is without risk, and the recovery time would be fairly long, not to mention rehabilitation time. Add to that the fact that I probably only have another five years left as a dancer, is it worth it?
I know many people face far worse, but I guess I just always assumed that when the time for retirement came, I'd be ready for it, that I would choose to retire because I'd done what I wanted to do.
So it looks like I have a big decision to make...
Dennis