Plantar Fascitis...

So, there's this foot problem known as Plantar Fasciitis.  It's painful.  Or so they say.

The Plantar Fascia is a big thick tissue that is on the bottom of the foot, from the heel bone to the toe bones.  It's pretty much important for everything from walking to pointing one's foot. 

Well, it's one thing that I have to stretch out, because my foots like "Woah.  It's been 12 and a half weeks since you've walked on me.  What're you thinking?  I was getting comfortable not doing anything."

And by getting comfortable, it basically means that it's non-existant.  Which is not a good thing whatsover.

Well, sometimes problems arise when one walks after three months of not walking.  For instance, my gastrocnemius (calf) is uber-atrophied.  As is pretty much everything else - even my thigh has lost quite a bit of tone.  My Plantar Fascia, needless to say, has been making my walking painful.  At first I thought it was just from the heel hitting the ground, then I realized that it was when I lifted the foot off the ground, that's where the pain was.  This really depressed me, because I was getting all excited about walking, and it was holding me back.  Upon consulting with my father, we determined that the problem may be mild Plantar Fasciitis.

Plantar Fasciitis is simply an inflammation of the Plantar Fascia, which in consequence causes problems in walking.  AKA it's painful. 

And I hate to sound so whiney.  But it just stinks. 

On the upside there are lots of exercises to do to help stretch out the Plantar Fascia.  So I get to do fun things like extra stretches for my foot and calf.  My particular favorite is that I get to play with my toes.  I.e. I get to manually bend and point my toes.  It's fun.  Really.  I feel like a little kid.

So, slowly but surely I'm getting better.  Which is a good thing.  I leg pressed  35 pounds today with my right leg.  Which isn't much, considering I used to leg press a lot more.  But still, it's something.  And I also got to start walking around today without my crutches.  Whoohoo!!!

K.  I'm going to sign off.  And tomorrow I'm going to try and not whine.  We'll see.

Walk Like an Egyptian...

Well maybe not quite, because I only have one arm avaliable.  

But guess what?  I HAVE ONE ARM AVALIABLE.

Which means that I'm down to one crutch.  And this is sweet action.

Here's how it went down:  

I called Dr. Fissel's office on Tuesday because my physical therapist and I were worried that I might trip over my cam boot walker, so I needed to get fitted with a new one.  I spoke with his Medical Assistant and she said to just come on in on Wednesday and we'll see if a new fitting was necessary.  

It was.

So then she went to get me a medium, rather than a large, and now I have a boot that actually fits.  Which is pretty awesome.  It's only the "top of a thumb" longer than my toes, rather than four inches.  It's pictured to the right.

Well I wasn't supposed to see Dr. Fissel, because it was just a re-fitting, but right as Cheryl (the Medical Assistant) was saying take a few steps, Dr. Fissel came in because his next appointment was going to be late.  So, we asked him if I could walk.  

After going over the schedule of when I was supposed to walk again, Dr. Fissel gave me the go ahead to walk, since it was only a day and a half before I was scheduled to walk.  

Well, walking hurts.  Which I assumed it would.  But then today I went to physical therapy and my therapist was all excited and she helped me practice walking on flat surfaces and up and down steps.  We also did an obstacle course of sorts and worked on the leg press.  I'd say it was successful.  

And now I can walk.  And I'm going to only have one crutch at work tomorrow.  We'll see how that goes.

Little Steps

I get to start walking on Friday.  Can't wait.

And, I can sleep without the stupid boot tonight.  Thank heaven.  

And I really liked this quote from bustedhalo.com:

The simple sense of wonder at the shapes of things, and at their exuberant independence of our intellectual standards and our trivial definitions, is the basis of spirituality. — G.K. Chesterton

Yup.  I've been slacking on the blog, but it's just because I've been living a pretty boring life.  Yup.  Boring.

And this is a really random post, but I've got nothing else!