Doc On The Run Podcast

What happens if I run before my broken toe heals?

A runner in the in the recovering runners coaching group asked a great question.

She had just broken her toe and could barely walk on it. She was really worried that she was going to have to use a fracture walking boot for a month or month and a half to get the toe fracture to heal.

She wanted to know specifically when she could start running.

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about what happens if you run on a fractured toe before it completely heals.

Can a blister on the big toe cause peroneal tendinitis?

I just got a great question from somebody who said he went rock climbing over the weekend, and he got a huge blister on his big toe from his climbing shoes.

He didn't really complain that much about the blister, in fact, he'd even been running. But then he said he was getting peroneal tendonitis. He was having this pain on the outside of the ankle where the peroneal tendons go down around the back of the fibula bone.

He wanted to know if it was somehow related to the blister on the big toe.

Can a blister on the big toe caused peroneal tendonitis? Well, that's what we're talking about today on the Doc On The Run podcast.

Is a cortisone injection malpractice if it causes a plantar fascia rupture in a runner?

I recently got a great question from a runner who was calling me for a second opinion during a telemedicine visit.

She wanted to run but had a partial rupture in the plantar fascia.

When we were talking about her history, she told me that she had had a couple of corticosteroid injections (or cortisone) injections for the plantar fascia when she had plantar fasciitis.

Is a cortisone injection malpractice if it causes a plantar fascia rupture in a runner? Well, that's what we're talking about today on the Doc on the Run podcast.

Can I run with arthritis in my ankle?

I got a call from a runner who has a really interesting situation.

He's been doing lots of running, but he's been getting pain in his ankle whenever he runs. 

He gets a little bit of swelling in the ankle at the end of the day. 

But when he wakes up, the swelling in the ankle is completely gone. 

The ankle swelling is completely resolved and he seems fine the next morning.

So his question was, “Can I run with arthritis in my ankle?”

Well, that's what we're talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.

 

Should I get an MRI of healing plantar fascia tear before I start running?

This is a great question I got from a runner during a recent telemedicine visit and this was a runner who actually called me for a second opinion because she had a tear in the plantar fascia.

She felt like it was healing, and she wanted to get back to running. She was really hoping to get some kind of real positive affirmation or confirmation that she was okay to run and wanted to know whether or not she should get a repeat of the MRI that she had previously that actually discovered she had a partial tear in the plantar fascia and not just plantar fasciitis.

Now, this is a great question and it's a completely reasonable one. In fact, I just discussed this with doctors last week at the International Foot and Ankle Foundation meeting, where I was actually lecturing on runner’s heel pain.

Should I get an MRI of my healing plantar fascia tear before I start running? Well, that's what we're talking about today on the Doc On The Run Podcast.

Can I run if my fracture is not yet healed on x-ray?

I was just doing a call with a runner who started running before his fracture was healed on the x-ray.

In fact his regular doctor said he couldn’t run on it until the x-rays showed healing.

I let him start running on it, in a very structured way. Now he is back to full running.

If the bone is always getting stronger while it is healing, do you really need to wait until the x-ray finally proves it has fully healed? 

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about whether or not you can run if you fracture is not yet healed on x-ray. 

Heel neuritis doctor did alcohol injection with ultrasound is it a scam?

This episode actually comes from a question I got during the live question and answer period at the end of a talk I was giving at the International Foot and Ankle Foundation meeting in Hawaii.

The question was about one of the conditions that can often be misdiagnosed as plantar fasciitis, and that's a condition called medial calcaneal neuritis. 

With this condition a nerve on the inside of the heel becomes inflamed and painful. 

In short, the patient had alcohol injection under ultrasound guidance by another doctor, but the condition dod not get any better. 

The question from the doctor in the audience was basically asking me what my opinion about that procedure using ultrasound.

Today on the Doc On The Run Podcast, we're talking about heel neuritis in a situation where a doctor did an alcohol injection with ultrasound and another doctor wanted to know if that was a scam.

472_mri_vs_ultrasound_which_is_better_for_plantar_fasciosis_or_partial_rupture

A doctor at a medical conference asked me a great question! 

I was giving a lecture at the International Foot and Ankle Foundation meeting in Hawaii on runners heel pain, specifically about the, what we call the differential diagnosis or the things that can cause runners heel pain. 

In that talk I was also teaching about the differences in treatments between runners like us, and non-runner patients with heel pain.

At the end of that lecture a doctor wanted to know which kind of imaging study was better for a runner with a suspected small tear in the plantar fascia ligament. 

Today on the Doc on the Run Podcast, we're talking about MRI vs Ultrasound. Which is better for Plantar Fasciosis or Partial Rupture in a runner?

Rehab after tibial sesamoid non-union removal surgery in both feet

Today I got a question from a doctor who wanted to know what I would do with a runner after surgery to remove non-healing sesamoid fractures in both feet. 

You have two sesamoid bones under the big toe joint in each foot. When one of them develops a stress fracture, it can break. 

If it breaks into two pieces, it can be very difficult to get the broken sesamoid to heal completely. 

If it doesn’t heal, becomes arthritic and turns into what we as doctors call a “sesamoid fracture non-union” your doctor may recommend surgery to take it out.

Today on the Doc on the Run Podcast, we're talking about what to think about when a doctor is trying to rehabilitate a runner after tibial sesamoid non-union removal surgery in both feet. 

Doctor has a runner with a stress fracture for 2 months

I was just given a talk at the International Foot and Ankle Foundation's 40th Annual Hawaii Seminar.

And at the end of the session, we got a couple of questions from the audience during the live Q&A for the doctors.

A doctor in the audience she had a runner who is one of her patients. 

This runner had been basically running on a mild stress fracture, which I would really consider a stress reaction, for a period of about two months but wanted to do a race. 

Today on the Doc on the Run Podcast, we're talking about what a doctor should do when she is helping a runner with a stress fracture who has been running on it for 2 months and still wants to run a race.