A Small Setback: My Stupid Foot and My Out of Whack Week

MY STUPID FOOT

I´ve been working out a lot since I moved to Houston in January. It´s great. I like having my set routine, and no temptation for spending.

About two months ago, my right heel started hurting. From the sole of my foot, up.  I was hoping it would go away. I kind of started walking on my toes on my right foot, so as to avoid landing on my heel and putting extra pressure on it. Landing on my heel definitely hurt.

And then one day in step class, I guess because I was on my toes instead of my whole foot, I landed wrong and twisted my ankle, and almost fell, but caught myself. Shake it off, it´s fine.  That was about a month ago.

Well, yeah, it had been hurting more than ever lately, so I finally went to a doctor. I found an orthopedist who specializes in sports injuries, and man, she was really good. After hearing me describe my symptoms, she sat me on a table with both feet in front of me. My left foot (the good foot) can twist outward, a little bit, normal. My right foot (bad foot) can twist almost all the way around with no pain! I´m like the exorcist with my foot, over here! She said, “yeah. Something´s definitely torn.” YIKES!  (They did xrays, too. The bone is fine.)

Long story short, she taped up my foot with that athletic tape you see all over people when you watch the Olympics (Olympics junkie, here) and it instantly made all the difference!  Weird.

These are the shoes I had been wearing every day.

And she told me to wear an ankle brace. She said she´d sell it to me, but at Academy it was much cheaper.

She also gave me a prescription for some anti-inflammatory meds, an exercise band, a series of exercises to do to restrengthen my foot/ankle muscles, and strict instructions to no longer wear the kinds of flats I normally wear to work, or ever be barefoot. “But! But!” I protested. “I love being barefoot. And I only ever buy cheap $10 shoes. It´s not like I´m on my feet, I sit all day!” She said none of that matters and that I should buy FitFlops for home instead of being barefoot, and whatever shoes with lots of arch support for daily use instead of my cheapo flats. My copay for seeing her was $40.

So I checked out Academy´s selection of ankle braces. This thing was $65! I looked on Amazon, same one, $15 with free overnight shipping. Yeah, I´ve waited 2 months, one more night wasn´t going to kill me.

I called the pharmacy and asked how much the prescription would be with my insurance. Another $40. I searched for FitFlops everywhere online. These things start at like $80! And new shoes with good arch support? Yeah, another $80 at least. So here we are, looking at $255 minimum to get my stupid foot to not hurt anymore. Stupid foot.

In the end, I got the brace shipped from Amazon. I skipped the prescription altogether, opting for Ibuprofen instead. And I just cannot stomach the idea of $80 for shoes. No way. So I dug out of my closet some old Clarks I used to wear when I worked in retail and had to be on my feet all day. They have great arch support, but are kind of smelly because they´re so old. (You see? This is why I have such a hard time throwing things away!) I cleaned those puppies out with some baking soda, and they´re fine.

I had the tape on for almost a week (who knew it would last so long, and could be so effective!?), I´ve been wearing the brace constantly, and I´ve changed to those old shoes. I´ve been doing the exercises, too, and don’t you know? In just one week, my heel doesn´t hurt anymore! (I haven´t tried it without the brace.) She told me to skip working out for a week, and after that, keep wearing the brace all the time for a month, even at the gym.  I have high hopes this thing is healing.  And I only spent $55–$40 for the copay, and $15 for the brace.  Much easier to swallow than $255!

MY OUT OF WHACK WEEK

So I´ve been housesitting all week, for Aunt Michelle. This is great because it´s wayyyy closer to my work than where I´ve been staying. Morning commute: 20 minutes, tops. The good news is that I´m using much less gas. The bad news is, I just realized gas is about $0.90/gallon more expensive here than by C and M´s house. $0.90/gallon! I can´t believe it! Michelle comes back in town on Tuesday, so I´m hoping the quarter tank of gas I have in my car will get me through til I can make it back to the land of the ‘burbs and reasonably priced gas!

Also, I haven´t gone to the gym all week because of my ankle, but somehow in my mind this has given me a free pass for eating out all the time. My accidental accountabilibuddies aren´t here to judge me keep me in line and I´ve been eating like a little piggy. Also, by chance, my friend Grace was in town on Tuesday for a concert, and we met up and went out for drinks. And also totally by chance my other friend Rachael was in town for a work thing, and we met up on Friday for drinks.  Nice to see friends, but every bit adds up.

Also, Michael´s oldest brother and his wife had a baby on Tueday.  As the pictures started pouring in, my uteran ache overwhelmed me.  I drove to the grocery store, bought cookies and a tub of ice cream and I cried while looking at the pictures.  Y´all, I was a mess.  I thought about calling in sick to work on Wednesday, but didn´t, and ended up having a really promising interview that afternoon (more on this later).  What a rush!  Good thing I didn´t call in!  These extreme ups and downs are so unlike me.  I blame it all on eating bad and not working out.

So yeah, my week has been completely out of whack. “With what money has all this been happening?” you may ask. I hang my head in shame as I tell you that $500 dentist fund has dwindled to $250. At least I´m sticking to my guns with the no-credit cards thing?

Sigh.  This week-long setback has cost me about $300.

So. What to do? Get back on track! That´s the only thing to do! Monday starts a fresh week. I´ll pick up groceries for work and home and kick my butt back into normalcy.

How have you been?  Isn´t it weird when crazy life things all happen in the same week and totally throw you off?  I´ll leave you with some pics of hot athletes here above, rocking that bizarro tape.