My Life on Tarsal Coalition

I am writing this blog in the hopes of connecting with others who have faced chronic foot pain in their lives, specifically those who deal with the condition of tarsal coalition. Additionally, through my story, I hope to give understanding to those who love someone who is facing this condition.

It has been 699 days since I was last pain free. Before June 1, 2011, I was an extremely active 25-year-old law student. Exercise was my stress relief, and I thrived on running, biking, cardio classes, and virtually anything that got my heart rate pumping. At the time, I was training for my first long distance race, a ½ marathon. I was looking forward to the summer of my life: I had a great summer position with a law firm, was engaged to be married in just a couple of months, and was looking forward to experiencing my first summer away from my hometown, in the big city of Chicago. Then, 3 days before the race, I experienced sharp pains in my ankle while running. Being the stubborn (and sometimes idiotic) person that I am, I kept running and went to work that day wearing heels (it was only my second day on the job!). Well by the end of the day, my ankle was rapidly swelling to the size of a small cantaloupe. But that still didn't stop me, and I proceeded to walk on the injury around Chicago for 3 days. Finally, after some convincing, I went to the emergency room and was told that I most likely had a stress fracture and instructed to not put weight on the foot. No big deal, I thought. I was a bit sad to miss the race, but thought I would be back to running in no time.

Fast forward 2 years later, and I still am not running. In fact, I am barely walking, and it's a struggle to shower, run errands, or even just sit without thinking about the constant pain. Here is a quick overview of my situation. Since that day in June, I have had three surgeries. The second surgery was for a genetic condition called tarsal coalition. It took the doctors more than a year to discover this, but essentially, since I was a mere fetus, two bones in my foot had been growing together. Now, as this is a dominant gene trait, I was confused as to how no one else in my large family managed to come away with the condition. I must have won the genetic lottery.

The doctor performed a resection of my calcaneonavicular coalition, but sadly the pain was the same. After several more months and 1,000 of miles of travels to get second opinions, I learned I had anterior tarsal tunnel, which is an entrapment of a nerve (a more rare nerve entrapment than the common tarsal tunnel (which is like carpal tunnel in the foot)). Two months ago, I had surgery to release the nerve. As of now, I have yet to experience any pain relief, but the doctors again have given their favorite (and my worse nightmare) instruction: "give it more time."

As many romantic comedies would say, my situation is complicated. Every day is a struggle, but with the help of my husband, family, and friends, I have been able to deal with the daily emotional struggle. But not a day goes by where I don't wish I could go for a run, a walk, or even a sit without pain.

This picture represents the last day I wore heels, at my wedding in 2011.