My foot is just not getting any better (or rather, it did, and now it's got worse again) and I've been pondering going to my GP. I'm putting it off because my previous experience of GPs and sporting-related injuries has not been great, and I'm loathe to take the time off work when the chances are it will be a pointless waste of time.

My own experience has been that, while they are generally able to diagnose the problem, the only thing they can come up with as far as treatment and/or rehabilitation goes is "rest it until it stops hurting then build back up gradually". While that's perfectly sensible advice, I've found that asking anything a bit more specific, such as "will it make it worse if I ski on it next week?" generally elicit blank ignorance and an answer of either "should be fine" or "better not", depending on the risk-averseness of the GP concerned

I know we can't expect GPs to be experts in everything, so I'm not blaming them, though I wish they'd be as ready to admit the fact as I am to accept it! Have I just been unlucky with my GPs, though, or is my experience fairly representative?

And would I be better just to approach a sports physio and cut the GP out of the loop entirely (bearing in mind that I'm relatively cash-rich and time-poor, and there's a sports physio round the corner from my office, so it's an appealing option)?

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Cautiously potter-along puddy

Sounds like you need to see a Podiatrist, preferably one who specializes in sports injuries. They deal with all things footular (?) I know 'cos my wife is one...

Hrrm... I was really lucky once in that my usual GP was away, so I saw a locum, and he just happened to be a speacialist in sports-injuries and in particular running... in fact, he was the one who suggested I enter the sheffield half, he was really supportive and gave me TONS of advice... so what should have been a 5 minute appointment turned into a 45 minute appointment!

SO I don't think you're unlucky, it's just the way things are, but perhaps you could actively search out a sports-injury specialist, a physio, or whatever. Might save you time in the long run.

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Mr Octopus has taken over, and you will all bow down his awesome power of massage-magic. Bow little ones... Bow.

Ah, I've heard of such people but never really knew what they did (loving the word "footular" by the way ).

I will have a look on t'internet, see what I can find.

Thank you

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Cautiously potter-along puddy

Haven't been to a GP for over 30 years... Not that there haven't been times when I should have, I suppose.

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GONE RUNNING

my experience of GP's & sporting injuries seem to be very much similar to your BPC... sadly though the majority of the public seem to expect GP's to know all things medical - so when asked on advice on matters they're not sure of the specific answer to, it's generally better for them to play it safe and give some very basic advice.

They'd probably be all sorts of uproar if GP's started saying "in all honesty, I don't know the exact answer" such is the crapness of society today

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www.richardsimkiss.co.uk - 'Stratford Summer Six' Race Report Added

"Crapness", Mr S? :eek:
Is that a "mod's" privilege to use such language?
...Or do we obey the 9pm watershed as supposedly observed by the TV?

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GONE RUNNING

My apologies, I meant to say 'carpness' - referring to a fish like odour disliked by many.


Or something like that anyway

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www.richardsimkiss.co.uk - 'Stratford Summer Six' Race Report Added

LOL!

I find the same with GPs and sports injuries. Often the same advice that you would get from a relative, but a much longer waiting time

Several potential words of the day here!

Well, blow me down if I haven't just had a positive experience with a GP about an injury!

I happened by pure chance on one who is a runner himself, who listened to me and didn't just give me the standard "rest it till it doesn't hurt any more" response. He didn't really want to give an answer on whether it would be OK to run 5km on it in 2 weeks' time (not that I'm going to be fit to do that, mind you, but it would be nice to run some of it at least), but did say that while he wouldn't recommend a marathon, 5km wasn't all that far really, was it, and if it was something I really wanted to do, then why not go for it.

He's given me a load of exercises to do and we even had an interesting chat about the benefits of supportive shoes vs going barefoot, or nearly barefoot. I didn't even bother to ask for a physio referral as it was really exercises and a way back into running that I wanted and he's given me those.

It was an excellent experience all round, in fact, as my blood pressure has dropped enough to be called normal (which it hasn't been in a long time - it's got to be thanks to the running ) and I got the results from a blood test which also showed everything normal and a cholesterol level which "lots of people would give their eye teeth for".

Now I just have to find some marbles to pick up with my toes...

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Cautiously potter-along puddy

You lost your marbles then BPC?

You are lucky to find a running GP. I think that they are something of a rarity.

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GONE RUNNING

I twisted my ankle really badly coming a cropper on well more off a quad, my ankle was quite badly swollen and I wasn't able to walk properly. This was made worse by the fact I was due to go to Russia to work for a couple of weeks. I was in seeing my Chiroprator anyway mentioned my ankle he had a look done something that hurt like hell but straight away I could feel the pain easing within 3 days I was right as rain. He said something about the ligament being like spaghetti and they just needed straightened out.

Squint

Yep, round about the time I took up this running lark

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Cautiously potter-along puddy