crabwalk

Who is that woman doing the grapevine down the sidewalk at 8:15 on a Wednesday morning? Oh, it's just me. Never mind.

I am in month 3 of recovery from my foot injury. I did not ever imagine how long this could take or how limiting it would be, but I'm on the mend with lots of care and work. I highly recommend NOT getting plantar fasciitis. It's good when you don't have a burning hot knife stabbing you in the heel all day and sometimes in the night.

I hurt my foot on January 16, my first day back to work after a 3 week Christmas break. It was icy out, and I was wearing grippy things on the bottom of my boots as I walked to my office. I'm guessing I altered the way I put my foot down because of the grippy things, which triggered the injury. I'm pretty sure it was waiting to happen already. It's in my left heel, and my left knee and hip have been hurting on and off for about 6 months. Everything is connected to everything, as I have been learning.

Soon after injuring my foot, I went to New York for a week. I gobbled ibuprofen, kept a frozen water bottle in the hotel fridge for icing whenever I was in the room, and toughed it through a week in a city where you just have to walk all day long. That's how it works in New York.

When I got home I began working on my heel. I got soft orthotics, started a three month stretching program, saw a massage therapist, stopped walking (that was the hardest part). Slowly, the pain has been subsiding. Slowly I have been able to do more on foot. I now have the stetchiest, most massaged feet and calves of anyone I know. I own a foam half-roller, a grid massager and a half-ball. Want to crack up your 21 year old? Ask him to "throw Mama her half-ball." I slept for many nights in a tensor sock. In fact, the sock went to New York with us and helped me make it through "walking with a red hot knife in your foot" week. (ps Andy says the tensor sock is NOT sexy.)

Which brings me to walking the grapevine down the sidewalk at 8:15 on a Wednesday morning. My wonderful massage therapist gives me homework. One of my assignments is to walk sideways whenever I can. Her precise words were, "You know the stuff that soccer players do on the sidelines? Do that!" So I've incorporated sideways walking into my routine. I'm now walking part way to work. I just get off the bus a little early and walk the rest of the way. And part of that way, I walk sideways.

If you drive past me and see me walking sideways, please be kind. Don't honk. If you want, you can roll down your car window and shout, "OPA!" Otherwise, I don't want to hear about it.

question: what did you ever do to help yourself mend?

mompoet - OPA!