My Left Foot - Part 1: The Basics

Stability has been the mantra in my classes, on my yoga mat and in my life for over 5 years. You may have heard me say in class, “find physical stability before physical movement, seek mental stability before acting or reacting or sit in emotional stability before speaking.”

While I intend to practice stability in my life, I have been living with an unstable left foot for most of my adult years. Last Wednesday I had some repair work done on my shaky left foot. The procedure in layman’s terms is called a Corner Fusion. Simply put, my doctors screwed together a joint in the top of my foot that I had dislocated 25 years ago.

The injury occurred during a touch football game in high school. Juniors against the seniors I recall. As the running back, I cut right, grabbed the ball from the QB, cut left and ran for a touchdown! It was in the pivot that I dislocated the joint and experienced a common football injury called a Lisfranc Injury. Back then however, it was called a “bone bruise”. After a quick x-ray in the ER and I was sent on my merry way with a pair of crutches.

Over the past 24 years, however, I have injured and re-injured that left foot in different ways. There have been ligament tears, nerve issues and sprains. Balancing on that foot on my yoga mat has always presented a huge challenge and has helped me learn to be patient and compassionate.

In search for some answers to my stability issues, I found Dr. Nick Romansky of Healthmark Foot and Ankle Associates, a well known podiatrist to professional athletes including the US Soccer teams at the World Cup, Olympics and more. He and I went on a quest to find the reason behind the chronic pain in my foot.

Dr. Romansky told me that my yoga practice had kept me physically balanced to date but that as I age, I run the risk of knee and hip issues due to the misalignment and instability in the foundation of my body, my feet. Those words caught my attention.

After CT Scans, MRI’s, multiple x-rays and physical therapy, his team of doctors reached the diagnosis that I had dislocated a joint at the top of my left foot that day on the football field. Simply put, what should be the most stable joint in the foot, he said, was completely unstable. My “keystone” was unstable and was becoming increasingly unable to support my body in a balanced way.

That was all I needed to hear. I know from my own yoga experience and training that our stability begins in our feet, our foundation. If the foundation is weak there will be excess stress on the body and eventually, stuff will break down.

So on Wednesday, my foot became more stable with a lot of expertise and some screws. I will not be able to bear weight on my left foot for about two months. It will be one of the most challenging practices of my life. I look forward to this time being one of growth and evolution. I will share my challenges with you in this blog that I plan to update a few times per week.

So, be grateful for your healthy feet and for your stable foundation.

I hope to stay connected to you all thru this blog and with your comments. Please share. I’ll be back to teaching shortly after Thanksgiving.

Peace.

Cara