A Month With A Boot Ends

The doctor said I could go back to my shoe and slowly get back to my normal level of exercise.

This is great news!  After a year or so of exercises that were supposed to help but didn't, he wasn't optimistic about the boot and had said, "Sure, try it" but really thought the next step was surgery.  The boot started out feeling great, but then I started getting pain on the bottom of my heel which seemed to be plantar fascitis and I was losing hope, though the Achilles tendon, which was my problem, seemed to me much better.

So surgery is now off the table.  The doctor's table, it was never quite on mine, though I had better questions today and he had better answers.  I trust him.

Boot Changed How I See Things

I don't see the blog as a place to whine about my health problems, but it is a place for talking about knowing the world differently, and wearing a boot and all the restrictions the boot has put on my life, certainly has caused me to see the world differently.

I feel a bond of suffering when I see other people with boots, canes, crutches, or just limps.  I had focused on not being able to run, but now just walking was a problem and there were a lot of little things I just didn't do because I didn't want to stress my heel.

The physical problems changed into mental problems as I skipped activities I normally would have undertaken.  Fortunately, for me, so far, the restraint for a month has paid off.  I don't think I'm totally out of the woods yet. I have to slowly ease back into things, lest I re-stress the heel.  And I'll keep the boot around in case I feel like I need to immobilize my heel again for a while.

And even if I fully recover, I will have much more sympathy and empathy for people with  injuries that hinder their daily activities.  And when people are surly or just slow and unenthusiastic, I'll add pain as a possible explanation.   Nobody is a jerk intentionally, there are always reasons.  That doesn't excuse their behavior usually, but an accurate explanation can lead to better resolutions.