T-minus 19: why I'm documenting my second foot reconstruction

Nineteen days until surgery. I’m handling it the way I handle most things: prepping like the end of the world is coming, while ignoring the very real downside. Which is weeks to a few months without hiking with the dogs. Never mind running.

Then my phone served up a memory this morning. June 11, 2010. A Friday that included running for 12 hours straight, 7pm to 7am, around my local high school track. The photo up top is the throwback from my first 24-hour run.

I keep coming back to the same reality: running is my life. My identity. My social media is running friends, running shoes, and races. I’ve never been a great runner, but I’ve prided myself on a particular cycle: run until injured, recover, do it again. Over and over. At some point it shouldn’t be surprising that this isn’t sustainable for decades. Somehow I kept it going for two.

Anyway. That’s neither here nor there, and it’s time to figure out what comes next.

So here’s what this blog is for: documenting the very long, very painful recovery from a double osteotomy, FDL tendon transfer, spring ligament repair, and a hammertoe fix. In plain language, I ran until my ankle and foot just… collapsed.

Oh, and this is the second time. I’ve already been through all of this on the left foot. Now it’s the right foot’s turn. When I went through it the first time, I searched all over the internet for someone who’d had the same surgery and was still running. There wasn’t much out there. So I figured I should pay it forward and put into words (and images! oh, those post-surgical images…) what actually happens, and how the recovery actually goes. If someone else lands here facing the same thing, maybe they’ll find some inspiration. Or at least some information.

It takes a special idiot to do this twice. Thank god I only have two feet.