My left foot hurts.
It’s been giving me trouble since foster child O was here. See, O had really bad reflux for her first few months, and the only way to settle her down when it hurt her was to bop her. Almost violently. Jen and I stayed up many nights, pretty much just holding O and doing deep knee bends as fast as we could. Well, my legs aren’t terribly strong (although it has been suggested that they resemble steel sinews), and to give them a break, I would switch to bopping on my feet. At some point, I pulled something or other in my foot.
I didn’t notice right away. It would hurt like a boogie when I woke up in the morning, but I didn’t think anything of it. I figured I was just getting older. So I’d limp around the house until I left for work, and by then it was starting to feel better. By the time I got home, I barely noticed it.
That lasted until about May. In May I started walking with a slight limp from the pain, and my family started noticing. I told them I was fine.
In August, I finally went to the doctor, since it had gotten to the point where I was limping quite a bit. The doctor diagnosed me with Plantar Fasciitis, which is Latin for really bad foot pain. It actually means that I had an inflamed tissue on the bottom of my foot, right in front of the heel. The doctor told me to wear comfortable sneakers whenever possible (and I’ve followed this advice religiously to this day, believe me), to take prescription strength Naproxen for six weeks (which was great: no headaches, no pain of any kind; it was like a pre-emptive strike against any possible pain), and to soak my foot twice a day in a whirlpool. I was also supposed to get some inserts for my shoes, but my perfectly flat feet complicated that situation a bit.
He suggested we check it again after a few weeks. If I still had pain at that point, he was planning to inject an anti-inflammatory directly into my foot.
Like fun, buddy. No one’s going anywhere near my foot with a needle, pal. So I never called back for the follow up visit, and my left foot has given me nagging pain on and off ever since.
But tonight the pain very different. Usually it’s kind of a dull throb, like a sore muscle. Tonight, it’s more of a searing sensation shooting into my heel. I’ve had to stop and take all weight off of my left foot a few times tonight, just walking around the house.
I figure this isn’t a good development, but we’ll see what happens.
Bottom line: respect the foot.