As the weeks went by, I started to walk longer distances on my foot, supported by the stiff base of my NHS issued black cast slipper. The crutches were soon left at home and I trusted the growing strength in my bones to move my body from A-B.
I learned to cope with the constant aching and pain I felt when walking. My foot felt swollen and weak. Any lateral movement caused shooting pains, meaning that I actively avoided walking on irregular surfaces such as dirt and stone paths. But despite the daily pain I could feel my foot healing. Each day the aching, ached a little less and I was able to walk a little further. As the days ticked by I became more excited about returning to the hospital and getting the all clear.
The NHS treatment room at Southampton's Royal South Hants Hospital was a smorgasbord of stories charting youthful misadventure and unfortunate work orientated mistakes. Athletic teenagers sat with their crutches draped across the clinics plastic chairs, while manual laborers nursed broken arms supported by their concerned wives. I sat, hoping that my black slipper would be removed and I could start to exercise again.
My stay in the waiting room was a short one and I was quickly sent for an X-Ray. A short while later I was sat with the specialist viewing the hidden features of my foot. The Doctor looked away from the x-ray and asked how I felt, I replied 'great'. He smiled and pointed and a spot on the picture, " you have what we call fibrous healing, meaning that the bone has not knitted together, soft tissue has started to bond together but the bone growth is delayed".
This came as a great shock, I was convinced that I was going to get the all clear, and be able to start training for my April Marathon. The Doctor went on, "sometimes the bone will heal, but take a longer period of time than normal. But in other instances the bone will never heal, the tissue will do the job of the bone, acting like a joint".
No bone growth sounded very, very bad. Concerned, I told the Doctor that I had a marathon in April and I had to start training soon. The Doctor smiled and said, "there is no reason why you can not run the marathon, start with light low impact training and build slowly. If the pain gets too much, come back and see me".
To say I was overjoyed was an understatement. Not the diagnosis I was expecting, but I was elated all the same. The black slipper was left at the hospital and I journeyed home, planning my first trip to the gym in months.
