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Serendipity

In a weird but wonderful twist of the universe, we had a (former) professional dancer drop into the adult class at my dance school earlier this week. If that wasn't amazing enough, it turns out her new career is as a physical therapist! My AD asked her if she would be willing to look at my foot, and she was gracious enough to give me a little exam before attending class (awesome!)

She told me that my symptoms were very similar for having an os trigonum, which can be hard to detect (I told her my podiatrist had checked for that and nothing had shown up on my x-ray, but I guess sometimes they can be super hard to see).

All the balancing!
Alternatively (and equally as likely) it may be the result of my tight calves in conjunction with my having had previous ankle sprains to that ankle many moons ago. Because of the sprains, I've lost stability in my ankle and now my peroneal muscles are overcompensating when I do all my balancing/pointe work. Makes sense to me!

She gave me a bunch of exercises to do to help, and I have to keep taking it easy for awhile (limit jumping, limit relevé if it starts to hurt, make sure to ice/contrast, etc. etc.) For those that are curious, the exercises involve controlled rises (up on both feet, lower on my bad foot), rises with a theraband wrapped around my ankle, and using a balance board/disk. I'm also keeping up with my calf massaging.


Because I didn't have enough stuff
in my dance bag already (ha!)
Later this week, I also chatted with my former dance teacher (from my youth), and she suggested taping my arch/heel in sort of a figure-8 shape. I tried this for class yesterday and it felt pretty good! I don't know if its a psychological thing or what, but I liked it because my foot/ankle felt supported and it didn't limit my range of motion. 

I may have to do both KT tape and the ankle taping and see how things go (and will therefore be the most taped up dancer ever, whee!)  Luckily, it seems like everyone is used to my crazy KT tape shenanigans now.
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