I have a hard time accepting I disabled myself in my 20s from a running injury

DisabledGuy8948

My biggest regret was not playing sports from a young age, so I picked up running as a hobby 5 years ago when I was 20. Shortly after, I got injured. The issue is the injury never healed, and I had to spend thousands of dollars and a ton of PTO seeing a bunch of doctors and PT. I eventually saw a doctor who ordered a MRI and eventually diagnosed me with arthritis in the talonavicular joint. There is no cure, and I have to deal with therapists and lay people telling me to suck it up and deal with it.

This injury killed my chance of joining the military and made walking extremely difficult. It hurts because an opportunity to improve my life ended up drastically reducing it. The experience also taught me how expensive and **** the American healthcare system is.

I can’t stop destroying and **** up my life, and it kills me.

MaryL44

Hello @DisabledGuy8948 and welcome to the Community. We are a friendly and supportive group and I hope that will be your experience as well. I'm so sorry to hear how bad you are feeling. I am not medically trained but one thing that everyone on our forum knows is that arthritis is not always caused by something we have done so we try not to blame ourselves.

Please look at our website to see what information there is available on issues with feet.

I know how frustrating it is to be told to 'deal with it' but our community members know that that is not so easy and they will have vast experience so keep checking back here for their responses.

Our Helpline may be able to give you some advice - the details are below this message.

Best wishes

Mary