The doctors gave me three choices: surgery, physio, or stop dancing. The surgery was described to me. They would be cutting my feet open, pulling and stretching out the tendon to move it out of the way, removing the extra bone, putting the tendon back, then sewing my foot back together. From there it was just hoping that my tendon would heal into the proper place once more. I would be in a cast for about three months. They would do the surgery one at a time meaning that I would have six months of being in a cast. And I would still need to do physiotherapy. It also came with the risk that if something went wrong I may never walk again.

Physiotherapy was essentially to just monitor the situation and keep my feet quiet. Strengthening the small muscles within the feet and ankles. Even some of the muscles in my calves and thighs to ensure that my feet were kept in a form of limbo. Keeping them safe.

If I stopped dancing there was a good chance that my feet would stop bothering me as the trigger for the pain would be gone. With the trigger gone it would be unlikely to cause any further problems. However I would be losing an activity and outlet that I dearly loved.

I chose to start physio and continue dancing. This showed my self determination towards dancing, critical thinking as I had to analyze and critique each option to choose the best one for me, and responsibility for my well being.

I was lucky enough to have Katy as my physiotherapist. Katy has worked with many people who do many different kinds of sports, but she specializes in dancers. This made her a good fit for me because she had a better understanding of the movements I was doing and which muscles the movements used, therefore understanding where the stress was actually happening. Over time working with Katy has taught me critical thinking and I am able to analyze my own body to see what is wrong. Something I have learnt through my experiences with Katy is that if your foot is hurting it may not be the foot that is hurt, it may be your hip but your foot is hurting because it is compensating for it. I am now able to tell Katy with confidence what I believe is hurt making both my job as a dancer and her job as my physiotherapist easier.

In addition to my physio I also got custom orthotics for both my everyday shoes and my dance shoes. While this does make it harder for me to find shoes because they have to fit both me and my orthotics I am forever grateful for them. I also have to lace my everyday shoes a specific way to give extra support to my ankles and wrap my dance shoes in tape to ensure my foot doesn't slide out of it.

When I first started doing physiotherapy Katy gave me two exercises to do at home before dance. I currently have twenty-one exercises. One of which I do every morning after I wake up before my feet touch the ground. I sit on the edge of my bed and stretch my legs. To help keep them mobile. These exercises have taught me a lot about self awareness and responsibility as I have to do them regularly and diligently to keep myself healthy.

Upon learning about having an accessory navicular I was essentially taken out of PE at school. My teachers were given notes about my foot issues from both Katy and my family doctor saying that I was allowed to participate in PE but I was to decide for myself whether it was safe for me to play or not, and if my feet started acting up I was to decide if it was safe to continue.

Unfortunately many of my teachers decided for me that this meant I was not allowed to participate at all. They would force me to sit out instead of playing with the others and give me a book to read. Instead of reading I would practice dance in an attempt to learn my steps faster. My coaches had taught me how to dance with my hands instead of my feet so if I had to sit out because of my feet I could continue learning my dances. If you can do the steps with your hands you can do it with your feet, if you can sing the song in your head you can dance to the beat. This taught me personal values and strength as well as self-determination.

However this also ostracized me from my classmates and gave some unwarranted attention. Many of my peers claimed I was faking injury to avoid unliked physical activity such as the beep test or that I was too scared to lose playing a game. Some said that I was an attention hog because I was always injured and not allowed to play. They used the fact that I continuously tried to tell the teacher that I was fine to participate in the activities as proof that I was faking an injury and that I was just trying to go back on my word. That my not being allowed to participate was my punishment for lying to the teacher.

My parents had to get involved to force the teacher to let me participate. While I was grateful to be allowed to participate in dodgeball and even the dreaded beep test again in some ways it made it worse. At first my classmates were worried because I would be walking away from PE limping or I would stop mid-game and tell the teacher my feet were hurting so I had to sit out. After a while people started thinking I was faking. Because I kept on having to sit out, I kept on leaving PE limping. Because wounds heal don't they? Injuries heal and you're able to use whatever was injured normally again right? Whenever I was asked I always told them the truth "I have an extra bone in each foot" again and again like a mantra. Most of them didn't understand what that meant, how that was possible, but they nodded their heads anyways and went on about their day. But I could feel the questioning glances, could see them sometimes too. Because how can someone have 208 bones instead of 206? Wouldn't that be a good thing because then if you break a bone you'll be fine because you have another bone there to pick up the slack!

When the trend of Rainbow Looms came to my school I remember being so excited. I finally had a way to explain what it was like to have an extra bone. When my peers asked I would tell them the same thing "you know when you make a rainbow loom charm and you put more than one cap band? It's kind of like that. The cap bands are used to keep the entire charm together but the extra cap bands are kind of overkill and instead of supporting the charm are there to hinder movement. That's what the extra bone does for me, it doesn't help to support it makes it harder to move and stuff. So when I do too much dancing, running, or even stand for too long my feet start to hurt a lot from it." I could see their faces change from either "if you break a bone you'll be fine because you have another bone there to pick up the slack" or "how does that work?" to "oh that makes sense and sucks for you, glad I don't have it." 

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