Sports therapy massage.
Yes. Me. The most un-sporty person I know. Turns out the sports masseur is on holiday but before I had chance to put the phone down, I found myself being booked in with an osteopath. That morning.
On arrival I thought I was bound to be discovered as a fraud and marched out with a 'you've never seen the inside of a sports hall, go on, be off with you' but I meekly took my clipboard with questionnaire attached to it, rated my pain between 0 and 10 and circled an outline of a body to show where it hurt.
Before the ink from my signature was dry I was called into the treatment room and asked to describe why I was there. I wasn't limping, bleeding or bandaged and there was no obvious injury on show. Because, in my unprofessional opinion, I am suffering with 'flip flop ankle'. Happens from time to time when I'm on holiday and living in flip flops all the time or if I've been walking the dog in flat soled shoes with no cushioning in the foot. A lady I work with snapped her achilles tendon a couple of years ago and I wondered if that was preceded by an incident of flip flop ankle so thought I should get it checked out as I cannot get out of bed without ouches, groans, limps and moaning about excruciating pain. After an hour or so of walking around it goes completely but apparently this can be a bit annoying, so I was marched (delicately) to the physio.
Now, it hadn't crossed my mind that the examination may include looking in depth at my feet and I'm not a great one for having my feet touched - especially by strangers. I felt ridiculously proud to be told that I had 'good arches' only to then be told that he could feel a real tightening of the muscles there which may mean plantar fasciitis is about to start. That sounded much worse than flip flop ankle. Further examination of my calf confirmed that the muscles which lead to the achilles from there are really tight too and he wanted to concentrate on deep tissue massage there. Whilst doing that he mentioned that he also liked to include acupuncture in treatment as it speeded up healing and was good for pain relief. Would I be willing to have a few needles put in, just for a minute. My brain screamed 'no' but my mouth said something along the lines of 'if you think it will help, then that's fine'. Stupid mouth, it should wait for the brain to catch up sometimes. A 'few' apparently means two rows of three down each calf and four around the edge of the achilles tendon. TEN. On each leg. Well, the thinking about it was worth than the actual doing it and a minute isn't that long is it?
So I'm trying not to wear completely flat, uncushioned soles but obviously need something suitable for walking other than my tatty 10 year old trainers so today I've been out to buy some smarter lightweight trainers.
They are extremely comfortable, with memory foam insoles and it's like walking on a springy mattress. Let's hope my ankles appreciate them. We're off to Rome in September and there's a lot of walking to be done, I need to be fixed by then. It'd be awful if I had to be seated in a bar somewhere for a couple of hours every lunchtime while my feet recovered wouldn't it?
3 comments:
Good for you for getting your feet attended to. Our feet are the pillars of our ability to be upright. They need not just pedicures! Working at a physio clinic, we see lots of people come in for plantar fasciitis. Thankfully it is quite treatable. There's a new method (here) for treating P/F which I'm told is uncomfortable for a quick moment or two, but over quickly. It's like ultra sound but uses "shock wave" technology. I vote for deep tissue massage any day - sometimes I book massage appointments just for my legs & feet ... ah ah ah ah
Plantar fasciitis, my sympathies ... my left foot has suffered with it for a number of years and now my right foot is playing up. Cushioned soles are the only answer, I'm afraid.
I have heard that plantar fasciitis is very painful so very sensible to get it looked at. Hope the trainers help.
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