Hey, it's betty. I'm just checking in to say that I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with tags. I wish I had a good excuse, but I don't. Instead it seems the anxiety/job search/mild depression/general lethargy is just settling in for a semi extended stay. My birthday offered a welcome one day reprieve but I seem to have picked up right where I left off as soon as my guests left the house.
The worst birthday present I got was this: plantar fasciitis. My foot has been hurting a little here and there for several months. Lately it has gotten a bit worse and I can't walk on it in the mornings. I finally decided to go to the doctor (on my birthday) since I may very well have a lapse in health insurance due to a lapse in employment. He said I have inflammation of the plantar fascia due to having a high arch and over extending it (presumably while walking though I read being overweight can cause this too - thankfully he didn't go there). He said I have to stop wearing flip-flops. NO!!!!! Bad Timing! I mean, while flip flops are not a panacea for poor self image, neither are the shoes I own which provide arch support. Especially not in combination with the only pants I have to wear now that my trusty jeans got holes in them in a place that renders them unwearable. So now my pants are too short and my shoes make me look like Forrest Gump and I can't buy new anything because I don't know what my job situation is and whine whine whinewhinewhinewaaaaahhh......ok, I think that's enough.
Anyway, I promise to categorize the tags very soon.
For now, I'm looking for ideas of exercise I can do that won't aggravate my foot. With all the free time I seem to have on my hands (despite the fact that my job doesn't officially end until Aug 31) I feel like maybe getting out there and doing something. Has anyone had experience with plantar fasciitis? What did you do? I welcome all suggestions with the exception of swimming which I just don't do and cycling which requires a bike and coordination, both things I do not have. I really wish I could run because I'm sort of in the mood for it. But I bet that isn't the best move at this juncture.
Also, even though this has nothing to do with exercise I'll just throw it out there because I can. Why do search committees throw dates at candidates like they are yesterday's newspaper? I mean don't they understand when they say they want to schedule an interview in the next two weeks that I will CLEAR MY SCHEDULE and wait wait wait for the assigned date? What happens after they say that that then allows them to think it's ok to just not contact the candidate for two weeks (or more)? And what about when they say they want to make an offer by X date? Why do they just let that date go by without any regard for our feelings? These are some serious tenterhooks. And I'm on them. What's the deal? I feel like calling or emailing all the search committess that are doing this to me right now and say - CALL ME PEOPLE I WANT INFORMATION. YES OR NO, I DON'T CARE. JUST CALL ME AND TELL ME SOMETHING! GAAAHHH! /rant
Trying to balance academic life with a healthy lifestyle.
3 comments:
Your Dr. may have already been through this with you but... any exercises that improve the flexibility of your hamstrings and calves has a chance of improving your plantar fasciitis (sp.?). It may not clear up the current flare up but could keep it from doing so again. For exercise ideas that are plantar fasciitis friendly, what about trying some yoga?
yoga is a great idea! thanks. i can do it at home too, which decreases the number of excuses I will accept as valid reasons not to do something. The only downside to yoga is that I have steel rods that run most of most of the length of my spine and over 2/3 of my vertebrae are fused together. So there are a lot of yoga moves that I can't do because my back literally doesn't bend. That's why Pilates is hard too - I can't do those lay on your tummy and hold out your arm things.
The Dr actually said nothing to me about this diagnosis. He just felt my foot, asked me what shoes I wear and then said "no more flip flops call me in two months if you don't feel better" as he was literally walking out the door. Stupid HMO.
So all I know about it I learned from the Merck online manual and other internet sites. I do remember reading about calf and hamstring inflexibility relating to plantar fasciitis. Normally I don't have a problem in that area, especially with my hamstrings. If anything they are overly flexible (I can bend over and touch my toes while my back stays completely straight - again the steel rods). Maybe I midly injured my hamstring or calf though and that led to the foot issue. Hmmmmm.
nate - thanks for the tip on the "rods/fusion" thing - i'll definitely check it out. i begged my back doctors for exercises that would be "good" or "ok" for my back and all they would say is "do they hurt? we could do more surgery?" or "yoga is ok - just don't bend, twist or stretch". okaaay, so only the tree pose is ok then? anyway, my back feels better when i am exercising, so i just try things and if my back hurts then i stop.
also, for the pf - my tear is in the ball of my foot, not my heel. i wonder if that is going to make a difference? probably not...
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