English
I am in a consulting room, wearing my dhb Southsea jacket and Wiggle Sweat Shirt. I am on team orders but have not been training properly for four/five months now. It gets to you. It plays mind games & it hurts. I do not like ‘not riding my bike’, I do not like not riding hard and most of all I do not like being in a siding – parked up and awaiting repair. i ride my bike as a racer and as a guide. My livelihood depends on it and at the moment I can do about two hours medium pace before any pain occurs. the aching happens after. It is tiresome.
The consultant is a nice guy, he knows about cycling, he is a cyclist. He is interested and asks about the team, he knows Wiggle, he buys stuff from the website. Small world.
We talk…
It took A LONG time explaining the ins and out of mechanics of the foot and the pressures that can be put on it. He fiddled with both feet and then spent quite a time feeling each bone/connection in my left one.
Silence…
He is pretty sure that the bone is fixed – whoop whoop! but has a suspicion that there is a neuroma between the 2/3 metatarsal – ALSO he tells me that he is quite sure that there is a problem with the metatarsal heads and that is maybe because of the stress/slack movement over time due to the broken bone he looks up and says that the cartilage between the toe and metatarsal head has worn out.
Arrr….This would explain the dull pain and swelling and general soreness. he nods his head in agreement. he says that riding the Strathpuffer – even easily was probably not a good idea but he could understand the need for the bike!
He wants me to see another specialist.
Where I ask?
He says the best place to get this looked at is in the USA and asked about what funding there was to get this fixed ! I know I am in a great team and have lots of support however….. hahahahahaa. I said it was to be funded by the NHS. (National Health Service).
He says has spoken with Mr Black (my original consultant who built the footbed which allowed the metatarsal to heal) and will report back to him and suggests that a referral to another colleague would be sensible. He is also keen on me having an ultra sound to see if there is a neuroma there. He explains what surgery will entail if that should go ahead, he also tells me the that is is risky. Not a good percentage come out smelling of roses!
It will take at least 4 weeks before I can get an appointment!
He finished by saying that riding that many miles for someone my age was not normal – although he knew there were some crazy folks doing it nowadays and he is very impressed!
That’s the news for now….still waiting still frustrated.
All the best
Jez
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