walk without pain

I’m giving it until the end of February (six months from the screw removal). Then I’m heading back to the surgeon or someone and making them x-ray it or something. Because I’m guessing that, if they would have looked at an x-ray or MRI or whatever, they would have seen that the screw was in the wrong place…now I just want to know what the deal is with the outside of Righty, and I want some visual proof of whatever they think it is…of course, Cara may have been right when she said that I should try positive reinforcement and can’t dwell on it…especially since my necklace fell off twice the next day (haven’t worn it since), but I digress…

Getting the screws out has done the trick about 95%. I just have to bide my time for the accompanying tendonitis to subside now that the irritant is gone, and I should be good to go 100%. What a crappy experience. Thank God it’s almost over.

Wow. Sure haven’t checked that one in a while. The bump did turn out to be an Achilles tendon tear. Anyway, the process for getting the screws out of Righty starts in August. Should make a big difference.

Got an MRI on Lefty (oddly enough, the “good ankle”). Luckily, the bump on the back isn’t an achilles tendon tear. Righty has been relegated to a tight sock for now. We’ll see what the next “step” is on Wednesday at the doc’s…

I still hurt, and I will continue to hurt until I get stronger…but I am a lot better than I was this summer. I just realized I’ve got a lot of fitness-related goals on my list; I think I can compile them all under “get in great shape” and make room for other goals.

I knew without even starting what that would mean for tonight’s exercises. But I had an idea, stemming from a comment I made earlier, that turned out quite nicely: multitasking. My physical therapist said I should start holding weights once my knee got used to the idea of the exercises, to make them more challenging. Tonight I thought “Why just hold them?” So I did some bicep curls and tricep presses while doing the regular exercises. The curls had the added benefit of helping distract me from the pain in my thighs during the wall sits (not sure redirection is good, but whatever gets me through those torturous seconds). My muscles are pleasantly tired now.

No pain tonight, unless you count the pain in my muscles from skipping Friday and doing reduced cycles Saturday and Sunday. Saturday and Sunday I wore sneakers, and today I wore platform boots—less of a heel, plus the shock absorption of the rubber sole. So, it’s either wearing 3+-inch heels, or from wearing 4-year-old boots that have no shock absorption left. (I’m kind of leaning towards the latter, as last year I had to toss a pair of low-heeled boots because I’d beaten them down to the point that they gave me backaches.) I’ll experiment with different shoes this week to see which is the case.

And toss those boots.

And go shoe shopping.

I think I need to wear different shoes this week. Which sucks, because I really like the boots I wore last week. Not enough to screw up my knee, but…they make me feel pretty. And I feel that so infrequently these days.

That probably ranks up there with the top ten dumbest things I’ve ever said.

I’m not really sure what brought this on. I can’t believe it’s skipping one day of exercises…I skipped two last weekend and it didn’t bother me this bad. But my knee hurts bad enough tonight that I can’t even finish one set. The only thing I can come up with is the boots I wore this week; I’ve worn them before, but not every day. I’ll try lower heels and/or more shock absorption this week, see if that helps.

For tonight, I think a massage, elevation, and ice are in order.

I think going from one to three sets is a bit premature. I’m settling for two, which equals six sets of squats and six wall sits, a song’s worth of phone book (a minute and thirty seconds each leg—I don’t want to buff up the left knee at the expense of the right one and do this all over again), and five stars. Got a nice little groove going…I do half the squats/sits to one song (typically “Follow” by Breaking Benjamin because the rhythm is perfect), do the stars, then the rest of the squats/sits, then the phone book.

Tonight I was listening to “Forget It” while doing the phone book…got lost in my thoughts and did an extra 15 seconds each leg. I think that means I’m getting stronger.