Fractured Sesamoid

So, my foot has been bothering me like heck for the past 3 weeks. Brook was sick and tired of my complaining and told me to go see a podiatrist. Yesterday, I finally went to the lovely foot doctor. The lobby of his office had tons of pictures of athletes with "Thank You Notes" written on them. I thought boy this doc must be really good. The nice nurse lady walked me to the little room and I got to relax in a dentist-like chair with my feet raised up. I read a Southern Living magazine while I waited and found some great recipes! :) The doctor walked in the room (Dr. Fulmer is his name), sat down, and said in a tone like we'd known each other for years, "So, what's wrong?" I told him about the pain I'd been having and then he started pressing on the ball of my hurt foot and moving my big toe around. Wow, did it hurt! I told him that I took dance and used to do gymnastics and cheerleading. He then proceeded to tell me that he used to be the doctor for the San Fransisco ballet. After we chatted for a bit, he took some X-rays of my foot. Low and behold, I had fractured my sesamoid. What is a flippin sesamoid, you ask, which is what I was thinking. Well, it is one of the many bones in the foot. Here are a couple of pics I found on the interweb...

He told me that it would never heal, but that it might stop hurting. He said if it stops hurting, then great, we don't have to worry about! If it doesn't stop hurting, I will need to have my sesamoid surgically removed! Otherwise, if I keep putting pressure on it, I will deveop arthritis and that will not be fun at all. He told me that this is an extremely common injury in dancers. Then he told me I had to wear this special shoe for 4 weeks that would relieve the pressure and hopefully, stop the pain. I thought, oh great, it's going to be one of those huge boots, but it's really not that bad. It just looks like a big black sandle with velcro straps. Lovely, I know. I told him that I was in a muscial at the Ft. Smith Little Theater and that there was lots of dancing in it. He said what I thought he would say. "Well, if you dance on it, it's just going to keep hurting, and you'll end up needing surgery." Uggghhhh!! So, this is what I've decided. I will wear the boot at all times except when I'm dancing at the theater. Even then, I'm not going to do anything full out until I absolutely have to. I'm also going to order some new character shoes, since the ones I'm currently using are probably 10 years old and have no support. I have to go back to the doc in 4 weeks to get another X-ray. Hopefully, my foot won't hurt anymore and I won't have to have surgery. I don't have play practice tonight, so I'm going to stay home and stay off my foot. I'm also going to paint my toenails so they'll, at least, look fabulous in my lovely velcro shoe. I'll try to remember to take a picture of my shoe tonight.