Ouchie!

I'm not sure when or how it happened, but I have bruised a bone on the bottom of my foot. Ouch!

Let me backtrack, in September when I got off the plane in Brisbane, Andrew commented I was limping. Until he said that, I didn't even notice I was favoring one side over the other. I shook off his concern saying I was tired (which was true). As the rest of the trip progressed, I realized I was really in pain. There were times in Sydney it was so bad I wanted to cry as I hobbled to a restaurant for dinner. Being alone, if I wanted to eat, that was my only option. The pain was worse when I first woke up, and dissipated as I walked, only to return any time I rested.

A classic case of plantar fasciitis. 

Throughout the fall, the pain came and went. It was non-existent when I went for my annual physical in November. As Don kept going for physical therapy (which the Canadians call by the more charming term, physio) and to the chiropractor for an injury he sustained on the trip, I kept shaking mine off.

I reached a point last month when I had enough and went to a podiatrist. He listened to me for a moment, felt my foot and diagnosed me with (you guess it) plantar fasciitis.

Gee, why didn't I think of that?

He did give me a cortisone shot, sell me some insoles, and sent me home with a sheet of exercises to do. He said come back in two weeks if I am still in pain. He also said to take it easy.

I dutifully did the exercises.

I then bought new sneakers. Since Nike brought back the Zoom Structures, I found the shoes online and bought a second pair. They had been my go-to sneaker before they were discontinued.

Feeling better, I went for a gentle run: 60 seconds running, 90 seconds walking. Okay, at the end I ran for 150 seconds straight to round up to a 5k. I felt some pain in my heel, but shook it off.

Two days later I returned to the podiatrist in pain and with a new diagnosis: bruised bone. This appointment was even shorter than the previous one. Left with less instructions, just keep off of it as much as possible.

This time I was told no running, limit my walking, and stick to low impact exercise like biking.

With temperatures in the 50s, I took my bike for a spin in Mercer Meadows. It felt wonderful to exercise without feeling shooting pain in my heel. Two days later, I convinced Don to go for a ride on the tandem. That's when I noticed my butt bones (not sure of the technical name) were sore from the earlier ride. At that moment it was as if a lightbulb went off: bruised bones do heal if you leave them alone and let them rest. So that's what I'll do this time. I've cut my daily walk goal down from 10,000 steps a day to 3,000 steps a day (I had cut it to 5,000 steps after the first doctor's appointment). It hasn't been a week yet, and I do have a trip to NYC coming up in four days.

Meanwhile, I signed up for the Spring Lakes 5 miler Memorial Day weekend because I do want to get back to running someday soon.

PS: A week later I had my first nearly pain-free day. The feeling in my foot was tenderness rather than stabbing pain. My limp felt more out of habit than out of necessity. Here's to it continuing!