Orthopedic and Therapy for my poor left foot

Today I finally went to see a doctor for my left ankle problem that have been bugging me for quite sometime. Its actually an Orthopedic clinic, not your normal clinic you go for flu or fever.

Defination (from Wikipedia),

orthopedics (also spelled orthopaedics, see below) is the branch of surgery concerned with acute, chronic, traumatic, and overuse injuries and other disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons address most musculoskeletal ailments including arthritis, trauma and congenital deformities using both surgical and non-surgical means.

Its Dr Khan who consulted me on my left ankle post injury symptoms and after a careful examination of several of my left foot X-rays, he concluded that its nothing serious at the moment. I learn that due to my bad sprain, twice on my left foot, the ligament have probably weaken and is not able to hold foot well. So now the weak ligament have to be supplemented by my leg muscles to keep the bones together.

Although I do have strong leg muscles thanks to all the resistance exercise and running I did in the past, my flat foot problem actually put a lot of stress on the muscle right at the inner back of my left foot. Scientifically, the muscle is call the Posterior Tibial Tendon. So I learn that I have flat foot today (never knew it before) and learn that the flat foot actually cause inflammation to the Posterior Tibial Tendon which is the source of the pain whenever I stand for a prolong period of time or when I walk too much. Strangely, running and jogging does not cause any pain to my left feet. Probably due to the pronation of my feet during the run.



Was recommended and referred to a Physical Therapy Clinic just half a mile North of the Orthopedic Clinic and over there, the Therapist make me go through a few different exercise to strengthen the muscles in my left foot. Well, the session lasted for one and a half hours and cost a whopping US$200 for the treatment!!! Luckily my employer (a.k.a SAF) brought Health Insurance for me and I only have to co-pay US$10. In any case, I guess I will not go back for the physical therapy session again. Rather save that US$10 and do those exercise myself, at less I already know what to watch out for to prevent recurrence and what exercise to do thanks to the very very comprehensive first Therapy session I went to.

At the moment, got to buy some Arch support from Walgreens to alleviate the pain symptom. My thoughts? Well, at less I could still run and jog , my favorite sports activity. IPPT is coming this friday, I am confident I shouldn't have any problem getting the Gold timing again for the 2.4km run but to be honest, I am pretty worried about screwing up my left foot when doing the standing broad jump.