Baby Steps To Second Wind

Over these weeks of “bad foot” I’ve walked much slower than I'm used to. It’s something people notice, that I take relatively big steps. Only time I don’t is when my bag weighs more than twelve pounds, then I take to a slow mammoth walk, it is most appropriate. With the pain I could not help but take it slow.
Walking slow wasn't a problem. A few times I surprised myself by enjoying my elongated walk much more than I had expected. Timing my arrival wasn’t the same. With the temporary handicap, being late wasn’t so bad. Truly, each journey had a new, physically orientated life of its own, directing me to speed up now and then, hoping to catch my foot at a good moment.

My journey anywhere became a battle. Nothing super epic. Just more laboured, more needy. A lot more needy. It had been a while since I had walked down the stairs as a sapling young child would, resting both feet on the same stair before advancing down another.
Babying the ankle-foot-toe was not always easy. Sometimes I would rely on the Aircast to keep things upright, only to find that it did not restrict my ankle’s movements to a perfect still. So occasionally the pain would stab, very unnaturally, the innards feeling sickly twisted. The turning point might have been that anti-inflammatory lotion. Movement upped.
Classes are over now, no more jetting class early to avoid rush hour. If I had to, I could survive one now.

You could have called me a slow-poke, I know I’m just injured. Injuries are a unique time of taking extra care. Some may say it's to make up for a moment’s lack of care.. more like a unique chance to know your body even more. My foot has never been on my mind as much as it had these past weeks. I am so aware of it, there. Linking off my left leg, tingling, in pain, held stiff, whatever.
I'm curious to know where the brunt of this injury really lay. After the initial fall it was toe and arc that felt most wrecked. Then ankle came into swollen play. Now that the ankle plus the foot-pit is allowing me to bend it, thus take more natural steps, the front foot is still telling me it has a long way to go.

Makes me wonder a little about the intricacies of the ankle. Whether tendons could really cause bones to be weak. Possibly, if weak tendons mean weak support. My doctor painted me a ghastly picture of my ankles sans-physio. Whatever exercises I learn in physiotherapy I am going to do for both ankles.
So now that I am 80% (accounting for un-detected neediness of the foot) on my two feet again, I can walk pretty balanced. It has been a while now since my right hip has felt the weight of the world.
Anyway this has been my Tae-Kwon-Do injury. I don’t know when I can be back again :(