I FINALLY HAVE MEDICAL INSURANCE! *happy dance* To that end, I have an appointment tomorrow to finally have an orthopedist look at my foot and figure out what's going on once and for all.

Is it plantar fasciitis? It is an Achilles tendon strain? Is it both? Or is it a cyst? A heel spur? What? I stepped on something back in October while walking on the beach during vacation, and my left foot hasn't been the same since. April 1, I re-injured it to the point where my Achilles tendon was aching something fierce in addition to the bottom of my foot...that re-injury was done during my final training walk for the Flying Pirate Half Marathon I was supposed to take part in three weeks later...I did not. I took a DNS, and I haven't been able to walk normally since.

I still have pain in my foot. I stretch. I use anti-inflammatories when I can (see liver incident). I ice. It's improved since April, but the pain isn't gone. So I've had enough of this. Nearly ten months of problem is enough. I need to know what's going on, because I have big plans for next year's Flying Pirate. I not only want to walk that half marathon, I want to run part of it! Unfortunately, I can't do that when I don't know what's wrong with my foot.

So off to the orthopedist I go. I am positive X-rays will be taken and hopefully I'll have a diagnosis tomorrow. I need to quit putting my life on hold because of a nagging injury. Not going to play the "what if?" game; I will just see what the orthopedist has to say.