More Hopeful Today

Tonight I walked part way toward the Los Alamos Airport and back - almost one mile per the step counter but probably really did walk a whole mile all together if I count the walking up and down the block while monitoring the water hose that was running full blast under the spruce tree - watered the street anyway!

It would be good if, before the appointment with Dr. Miller next week, I could walk a full 2 miles. Six weeks ago, I could walk about 2 miles before the foot pain would begin.

I'm not entirely pain free and can't really give all this rehabilitation effort a fair evaluation until I can try a longer walk. Will work up to it by next Tuesday.

Daughter and son in law enjoyed trip to Durango, Colorado. Apparently it's a very liberal town and much support of Obama was in evidence during McCain's visit on Friday! Spouse joked that with all we've lost in the stock market crash, we could have bought a condo at Durango Mountain Resort!

Recovery Lasted One Day

I was so happy yesterday when I tried a mini-hike ( probably less than a quarter mile) and it seemed that my right heel and medial instep wasn't hurting. I used two ski poles and only took careful steps.

This morning in White Rock, I walked from the White Rock branch of Mesa Public Library, crossed Rover and started down a gravelled path that runs beside Cañada del Buey. I hardly went very far at all, less than a couple of blocks, and realized that there was the same "twisting" feeling in my right hindfoot and that it was causing pain under my medial arch and in my ankle. I used my ski poles for support but that didn't seem to make any difference.

This is very disheartening. It's been 6 weeks since I've exercise walked or hiked. I'm wondering about the suitability of the Dean Karnazes SOLE heat moldable insoles for faster paced walking. They are very comfortable and very supportive to wear around the house but, once before when I tried walking to the end of our block, they seemed less comfortable when using a normal, brisk walking gait. The green Superfeet seemed more comfortable.

I was in White Rock to go to the Jemez House Thrift Shop to look for more ski poles but didn't realize they close at noon on Saturday. I missed that deadline by 1/2 hour. Then I went to the White Rock Mesa Public Library to check the non- return box.

I drove to the Española Walmart Supercenter instead of driving to Santa Fe. I bought some foot related items, including an Mueller adjustable ankle support, a PediFix arch bandage and a MediTemp ice pack. Both the ankle support and the arch bandage are too tight, even though they are one size fits all. I'm evaluating the ice pack (one treatment for tendon damage is to ice it and this was suggested by Dr. Sauer to help the posterior tibial tendon heal).

This evening, I also tried out the Hapad posting heel wedges and the longitudinal metatarsal arch pads. I'm trying to recycle all the Hapad Comf-Orthotic Sports Replacement insoles that I have by modifying them with the Hapad pads to make them more supportive. The posting heel wedges seem to work well but I couldn't get the arch pads to be comfortable so I may need a smaller size.

Tomorrow I'll try a mini-hike using the green Superfeet. I really am not overdoing it but need to have some normal, brisk walking to evaluate how the foot is doing so I can report that to Dr. Miller on November 4.

Wild Woman Wishes to Embrace World

Today I brought the Tina Turner "Simply the Best" cassette to water aerobics class because Stephanie plays music on Thursdays. Everyone seemed to like it. They thanked me and the instructor for the music.

Fortunately for them, I didn't have a whole lot of breath leftover for singing although I got in a few breathless lyrics. Certain songs made me want to exercise like crazy while others were forgettable. Her "Tina Turner Greatest Hits" cd is better but I didn't want to bring a cd to class - I'll stick to cassettes.

Kate might bring in a Ricky Skaggs album one day. This afternoon I'm previewing various cassettes to determine how fun they'd be in water aerobics class.

I sure am going to miss the class when I finally start walking and my pass expires! My skin, however, won't miss it. Right now I'm stinging from all the places where I've scratched myself to death. I'm not sure if it's the chlorine or the coconut oil. I'll wash the chlorine off thoroughly tomorrow (usually I just give myself a rinse) and apply the coconut oil and if I still feel itchy, I should switch to the olive oil next week.

I saw Barbara swimming laps at the deep end. She's the one I always run into at the library. She went for a dip in the therapy pool afterwards. She told me she's hard of hearing in both ears and should wear hearing aids but doesn't.

I ate 3 squares of unsweetened chocolate this morning, spread with peanut butter and topped with a medjool date. Chocolate is like speed for me so I'm fairly supercharged at this point. Problem with it is that you have to keep taking the addictive substance every day because otherwise, you crash the next day. Unfortunately, I'm out of chocolate so it will be black tea tomorrow. Hmmm...I do have some cocoa! : )

I'm so supercharged that I'd like to just keep typing and typing but either I've ran out of things to say or I don't remember what I wanted to say!

I know, I know...I watched the PBS show, American Masters last night. It featured the life and career of Charles Schulz, the Peanuts creator. This was a complex man and I'd like to read a biography of him one day. He died of colon cancer at age 77, in part because he didn't believe in getting regular checkups. (I'm glad now that I have scheduled a colonoscopy.) After having a stroke and the colon cancer, he had decided to put away his pen and end the Peanuts comic strip. He died at home, in bed, while his wife thought he was napping. She commented in an interview that she was amazed at how he had managed to die the day before the last Peanuts comic strip was to appear.

Passage Through Autumn

I drove up to Pajarito Mountain Ski Area to see Fall before it passes me by. I enjoyed seeing the blazing baby aspens along Camp May Road. I was amused by a chipmunk pair that leapt from boulder to boulder, disappeared under my car, and then chased each other through the golden grass at the Los Alamos County Camp May Park. The sun was very bright and I got warm in the car even though the outside air was chilly. When I stepped outside the car briefly, my breath created smoke. How cold does it have to be for that to happen?

It was with regret that I left to drive back home. When I started back, the sun was low over the top of Pajarito Mountain and the lower ski slopes were in shadow. I drove very slowly in low gear on the way down, not wishing to leave the mountains and the beauty of the autumnal colors. I was filled with intense longing, wishing to be traipsing through the golden grass alongside Camp May Road.

I read a newspaper article today about children nowadays not getting outdoors enough and spending too much time on the computer and in the thrall of electronic playmates. The author fondly reminisced about how in his youth, he hardly ever spent time indoors if he could help it. He referred to himself and his buddies as semi- feral children. That's what I felt like as I took a "Sunday drive" down Camp May Road and watched as all my former haunts (pre-foot injury) rolled by me - semi-feral, longing to abandon the car and disappear into the forest.

It's important, though, that I heal as well as I can and when I resume hiking, that I go about it in an intelligent way - use hiking poles, don't ever hike on a foot that hurts, get orthotics, and get supportive hiking boots for the rough hiking that has infected my blood and for which I hunger right now.

I did see a truck parked at Camp May and I inwardly blessed whoever it was that was lucky enough to be trekking the mountain when I couldn't. I'll be back, though, hiking those mountains one day!

Need Foot Transplant

Just kidding but that may be easier than getting my foot to heal. Dr. Sauer took the time to study the MRI, along with Dr. Lee, a radiologist. He concurs with Dr. Miller that I don't have a calcaneal stress fracture.

As a side note, he says I have a ganglionic cyst which is somehow connected with the posterior tibial tendonitis. He's not worried about that.

He says wait to get the orthotics until the foot is healed and suggests a cast or cast/boot to rest the foot. I'm going to research cast boots. Dr. Miller says that he'll put on an air cast/boot if it's not healed by November 4 (it isn't). Dr. Sauer could also outfit me with a cast boot but his looks much like the monstrosity that Walgreen Home Options has. Dr. Sauer says it might heal in a month if I wear the cast. He says that the removable casts often don't work because people only wear them 50% of the time. I don't want a real cast because then I can't even go to water aerobics. One advantage of getting the cast boot in Los Alamos is that if there are problems or adjustments with it, I could go in to see Dr. Sauer. Guess I could do that also with the air cast/boot from Dr. Miller - have Dr. Sauer follow me. Then, what's the point of going to Albuquerque?

Next week I'm going to start going to the Therapy Fun and Fitness on Monday-Wednesday-Friday because I read that doing range of motion (ROM) movements in a hot shower is a good thing. The warm therapy pool might help me to heal. Dr. Sauer also suggested ibuprofen and ice. Everything I read, though, says ice is best in the first 72 hours of an injury and that time period is long past. He says no stretching or strengthening but I was reading that for rotator cuff tendonitis, stretching and strengthening help the healing process as long as no pain is caused. I'm not going to take ibuprofen. I will stretch and strengthen in the Therapy Fun and Fitness class and the water aerobics.

All this infuriates me because in the meantime, while I'm not doing any weight-bearing exercise, my bones are going to decay. Only thing to do about that is to make sure I do some seated and floor weight lifting to try to maintain my bones.

Kick Butt Water Aerobics Workout!

As I was going into the Walkup Center today, I saw a woman who's in the water aerobics class and she said that yesterday's workout, which I missed because of the chimney sweep coming out, had "accelerators" which are 2 minutes fast intervals.

Stephanie, our water aerobics instructor, did the accelerators again today and all I can say is "Oh, baby!!" These fast intervals are just what I need to feel alive and what I should have added all along to my former land-based exercise routine. I'm going to enjoy these accelerators because they are an aerobic challenge and good exercise.

The hardest accelerator is the one where we pretend we are on a bicycle, with no assistance from our hands - we hold them out of the water like we're holding a bicycle steering wheel - going up and downhill. On the uphill, we bicycle our legs slower but with bigger circles which creates more resistance and on the downhill we bicycle with smaller, faster circles. I didn't think it was possible to overheat in the water but my face felt hot! Needless to say, I didn't bother with swimming laps afterwards as I was exercised thoroughly enough during the class today!

The teacher was late. It turned out that she has a gas leak at her house. She said she wondered why she was getting headaches. She didn't have time to bring out the boom box poolside to play music, a Thursday tradition, but she will next week.

Twice this week, high school ROTC members have taken up half of "our" deep end during part of our class. They practice jumping in in their clothes and retrieving an object from the bottom of the pool.

There's a woman in the class who has taught water aerobics and, even though she's overweight, she is very, very fast. I complimented her on that. She has plantar fasciitis and likes Dr. Blake, another podiatrist who comes up to the medical center.

Coincidentally, I found a book on water fitness in the Mesa Public Library non-return shelves today. Even more coincidentally, it was from the Walkup Center, having LRWAC written on the cover (the full name of the Walkup Center is the Larry R. Walkup Aquatic Center, named in honor of a Los Alamos County recreation director who died at a young age)! It's more about swimming for fitness, though, than water aerobics.

Blogger Outage Scheduled - I'd Better Speed-Blog!

I have a new paradigm for water aerobics. Yesterday when I did the laps back and forth, I enjoyed the aerobic effect so much that today I did the aerobics back and forth with the noon class but when they switched to toning, I excused myself and water walked and jogged laps on the short course at the deep end.

I did better today than yesterday - I water walked and other strokes for 20 laps (wonder if I over-counted - that sounds like a lot and 35 on the short course is a mile) on the short course in a half hour. I wasn't actually in a lap lane but swam right beside the last lane. The Master swimmers are amazing to watch. It's like watching the Olympics!

I hope I didn't insult the teacher. I explained that I would be doing my toning at home with my weights for the health of my bones. I really, really like the teacher and I like the toning and stretching but, in order not to stay in the water so long, I have to use the last half hour of the class for aerobics. I stretched on my own and was out of the water by 1:15pm.

I came home and did a Kathy Smith tape with weights.

I made a potage of black beans, onions, garlic, acorn squash and cabbage. I'll freeze some but I'll be eating it for a long time!

The acorn squash seeds were delish - especially since I didn't burn them this time.

Grandson came over for an hour while daughter went to the Y to exercise. He lost a tooth while he was here so the tooth fairy gave him $2. He'll collect more from his Mom and Dad.

Will Be Peaceful Here Tomorrow

Spouse will be going back to work after the 4 day weekend and the TV won't be on blaring political commercials, bad news about the financial institutions and tidbits I don't care to know about the presidential campaign. I prefer to get my news on the radio in the morning. Mostly I have it on to keep me company because I manage to tune it out when I read during breakfast or get on the computer.

I have to start getting up at 7am. I ate my breakfast smoothie right before going to the noon water aerobics class and it didn't sit well. I almost felt earlier like I was going to get the usual bowel obstruction but fortunately, I escaped that fate.

Going to cook acorn squash tomorrow morning. That will warm up the house and I'll get to feast on the toasted squash seeds!

Need to mail return back to Gaiam and buy stamps. I kept the foot pain dvd but am returning the strong bones and spinal alignment one. I should have only bought the foot pain one to begin with. The others are well produced and have nice props for the exercises but I'm more likely to use weights for strong bones than the rubber tubing props. The spinal alignment one seemed too subtle for me to want to do it on a regular basis. The foot pain one has a strap for stretching my foot (and hip and hamstrings) and a foam dome for stretching my calf.

Also, need to stop by Los Alamos Medical Center's Radiology Department to pick up digital copy of my right foot MRI and then go to Medical Associates to sign a release that they can fax to Dr. Miller's office to request the doctor's report. He never sent it to Dr. Church. I finally figured out this morning, after a flurry of phone calls, how the system works at UNM for getting the medical records and x-rays. It's more complicated than just requesting them from Dr. Miller's office once he has sent them to medical records and the film library.

After the water aerobics class, I water walked 10 laps (back AND forth) on the pool's short end. That took 40 minutes and is a little over a quarter mile. I'm going to try to do that at least 3 days a week so I can get some quality exercise. I was using various strokes learned in the class - sitting froggie forward and back, standing side stroke, flutter kick, cross country ski and water jogging. Mary, a women in the class, was also there doing some strength work and stretching. I suspect that we are two of a kind in that we both try hard to maintain our bodies.

Feeling a Little Sad

Sometimes it really gets to me that I can't freely walk or hike without pain. Probably I'll feel better tomorrow after getting some water aerobics in. It's not the water aerobics per se but just the act of moving my body that boosts my spirits.

I finally made it to the Santa Fe REI and returned some items. I bought another pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8. At first the poor employee thought I was looking for size 14 in women's and told me they don't make them past size 11. He took it well when I told him I needed size 14 in MEN'S!

Another embarrassing incident was when I went to the restroom, I must have had a lot on my mind because I forgot that I had placed my REI gloves in my pulled down pants so I didn't have to put the gloves on the floor. Well, I forgot totally about them until I saw, while I was speaking to the aforementioned employee, that the gloves were peeking out of my lower pants leg. I hastened to show him the holes in the fingers to make it known that I hadn't shoplifted the gloves!

I also bought a pair of SOLE Heat Moldable insoles to try them out. I'm not going to heat mold them but will try to wear them a little bit each day to get the idea of how a custom orthotic, with its higher arch support, will feel.

Maybe tomorrow daughter and grandson will meet me at the pool for the open swim after my class.

Son in law, daughter and grandson will come over for supper tomorrow night - mahi mahi, swordfish, shrimp, rice and salad. I'm going to kid grandson that we have red beets for him for dessert!!

Foot Frantics

I could make researching how to help my foot a cottage industry as it takes up so much of my time. I can tell, even after 4 weeks of no hiking or exercise walking and taking up water aerobics in the last 2 weeks, that my foot will go back to hurting exactly like it did before. If I walk normally, like putting out the trash and recycling last night, the foot hurts. All I can do is keep researching how to help myself. I feel fairly sure that I have posterior tibial tendon dysfunction (PTTD) which is something that will hang on forever and ever and just get progressively worse unless I can figure out how to help myself.

I called Dr. Sauer's office and will see him next week to discuss how he would treat someone with PTTD. He said that whether it's that or plantar fasciitis, the treatment would be the same - orthotics but I think a critical component is missing - at least according to a few papers I have read on PTTD - some kind of rehabilitative exercise to strengthen the feet .

I am devising some foot exercises with the water aerobics "noodle" at the pool that involve plantarflexion, inversion and eversion but I have to figure out how to do dorsiflexion. Perhaps, though, when I hang my heels off the edge of the pool ledge, it's dorsiflexion.

After today's swim, I went to the therapy pool and stretched my feet and massaged them with the water jets in the side of the pool. Tomorrow I will go to the 11am Therapy Fun and Fitness class to see if they have any ideas on how to help my foot and afterwards I'll go to the noon hydro power class. Spouse is deserting me for the WRSC hike which is in Santa Fe.

I called Foot Solutions to ask about their orthotics. They cost $395 but it may be worth it to go in so they can evaluate my feet.