Remember, Remember, the 5th of…
November 5, 2010 § Leave a Comment
…September.
a.k.a the day Polly did in her left foot.
What’s its current status, Polly? And why are you spelling out the alphabet with it?
alphafoot scoop
Well, funny you should ask…… The other day, whilst popping to see my super Doc for the H1N1/regular combo flu shot; we had a post-x-ray-follow-up-chat about the ongoing tenderness in The Foot. One thorough hands-on paw exam later (thereby ruling out the nasty possibilities in the process: breaks, fractures, the ACHILLES tendon…); she gave me the complete down-lo on what is up (here described with Polly’s drama-embellished paraphrasing)…..
‘Tis Tendonitis, my dear; likely caused by the lack of adequate footwear whilst dancing round your house. An overstretching, if you will, of the tendons (a.k.a elastic band like tissues that connect muscle to bone) around your middle toes (technically: the tendons from the Extensor Digitorum Longus Muscle in the leg which connect and help straighten/flex the foot). Unfortunately, it is going to keep smarting for a few months but the best treatment is to get dancing (well, she used the words ‘moving’ and ‘concentrated exercises that target, stretch and strengthen the whole foot’) but she also gave me the 100% go-ahead for that to include the big “D”!
Which I have since done…. Twice…. Woop Dee Do. Feels super. There is some post-dancing soreness (and not just in my foot given the length of time without moving most of those muscles!) but I have been taking care of the paw in the off-dancing times.
As to the foot-orientated spelling bee above – my super doc shared this pilates-inspired tip of spelling out the alphabet with each foot as often as possible; apparently this helps move and strengthen lots of the muscles/tendons in those things…
Finally, ’tis true, it was the lack of trainers* that did it; turns out that though our feet withstand much work throughout our daily lives; they are really rather fragile wee things. Going from a ten-plus year stint of treadmill walking and outside strolling to barefoot dancing round the living room was a recipe for tendon-pain disaster. So, until the feet are used to my ballet-ing; Trainers* are the order of the day.
*’Trainers’ – U.S. Translation: Tennis shoes, running shoes, “tennies” (erm…. I’ll stick with the all-encompassing “trainers” thanks very much; Tennis? Why must I be so limited?).
