As some of you may know I had a herniated disk this past winter and because of that ended up pushing my AT start date back to August. And while this was not part of the plan it is also allowing me to be an Artist Assistant for Catherine Chalmers at Pilchuck session 3.
My back is healing and without surgery, which has probably minimized scarring. I have the majority of feeling back in my right leg and am less weak with each successive doctors visit. The spine specialist and physical therapist are not trying to talk me out of hiking so I will not be acting against doctors orders.
There have however been a couple other setbacks. At about the time my disk became herniated I was also experiencing pain in my left foot. I was diagnosed with plantar fasciitis (which spell check wants to change to fascists). After 4-5 months of no improvement I finally got an MRI and it turns out I have a tear in in my plantar fascist. So two weeks ago they put me in a boot for 8 weeks and some crutches that I needed to use for two weeks.
Wed night I dropped my laptop on my right foot but didn't think much of it. Went to class, crutched around all day, and on Friday morning went in to a regularly scheduled appointment with my Podiatrist. I told her the swelling on my right foot was from a laptop attack and she said she would do an x-ray just in case. She checked out my other foot and found it healing up nicely and said i could start weening myself off the crutches. My armpits rejoiced. I had a quick x-ray and returned to the room.
My doctor walks back into the room my x-ray film in hand and says " You aren't going to believe this... You broke your foot." My response,"You have got to be fucking kidding me."
The thing is, I could believe it. In fact it had crossed my mind, I had even joked about it the night before. But I was slightly hysterical non the less. I was laughing and crying,unsure of which single emotional would best fit the absurdity of the situation.
It is a spiral fracture of my third metatarsal. So I am in a surgical boot for 6 weeks to minimize my movement, and I'm on crutches for at least another 2 weeks.
My projected recovery time is the beginning of July. Which leaves me a month to get myself back to "normal". The podiatrist thinks I will be good to go for the beginning of August as long as I take it slow. I assured her that with my limited ability to properly train, slow will be the only way I can take it.
Getting around is difficult but I have all the support I need. And though I may be crawling to the finish line at least I am getting closer.
