Sunday 28 August 2011

Ding-Ding, Round two

Enforced rest has many benefits; being waited upon hand and foot, all food has no guilt strings attached and you can’t feel bad about watching tv or reading books. Since Friday I have spent more time attached to my sofa than I probably have for the rest of the year combined, and today is only Sunday. By Tuesday I will need to be surgically removed from the black leathery temptress and I will probably need to get my eyes tested again due to the amount of degeneration from reading e-books on my laptop.

It’s actually been bliss, marred only by the subtle throbbing emanating from my left foot, a gentle reminder of the second bout of cryo-injection therapy I undertook on Friday afternoon. I’m certain this will do the trick, nine minutes of freezing rather than the usual six in total to create an ice ball one centimetre in length with temperatures as low as -67˚ inside my foot. Basically, I had the planet Hoth in my foot. By the end of the procedure I could feel that my teeth wanted to start chattering. I’m sure it was purely psychological and the weather was pants on Friday but it took me most of the day to get warm again.

The procedure doesn’t hurt but the initial anaesthetic and steroid injections are not for the faint hearted, I was pleased that Robin http://bit.ly/om0uVa suggested we ‘pop the AC on’ prior to beginning. Once the injections had been done I was ok for him to turn it off, the AC on my clamminess only heightened the innate desire to give in to the tunnel vision and hurl chunks. My loving husband texted me afterwards to see if I’d ‘spewed’ during the procedure, knowing me as long as he has I’m surprised he doesn’t know, I part with nothing unless silver crosses my palm.

Following this enforced rest I have one confession to make and an apology; I’ve read all the Twilight books and watched all the available films, and although the shining like diamonds thing as opposed to burning up in the sun is still not sitting right with the folklore to which I have become accustomed, I admit it, the Twilight books are as entertaining as all the other vamp stories I’ve devoured in my time. So I’m sorry for my previous aspersions upon the stories. Don’t get me wrong it ain’t no True Blood and I have no loin-stirrage for Pattinson (trust me, I’d feel way too much like a cougar if I did) but it’s been a decent way to spend a weekend. A weekend when the closest I’ve been to shoes is a luxurious pair of velour grey slippers, which would suit everyone yet no one from the age of 13 to 93.

So here I am sat on my sofa after round two on my journey to be rid of a Morton’s Neuroma, it’s over a year since I did any running and it’s thanks only to Prime Mover http://bit.ly/qAS0zN that I’m not the size of the leathery temptress. Imagine me as a sofa with eyes, and a gammy foot. The next two months of low impact gentle exercise will mean a careful eye on the diet and the turning back on of the will power gene. But come the end of October I will be starting my 25-week build up to the London Marathon 2012, I’ll know in October if I’m successful in the ballot or if I have to raise £2,000 to buy my way in. Either way I’m doing it, the hotel in Greenwich is booked, although I’m still deciding on the charity to run for. Perhaps the shoe sale could go some way to covering that potential cost.

I’m sure you think I’m mad, recovering from a procedure that I’ve undergone which was probably caused by the repetition of road running and talking about running again, but we all need challenges, without them we just exist rather than live. Besides after Friday’s session the chances of the inter-digital nerve making it through to next April is slim. The hope is that the nerve will wither and die and stop bugging me once and for all; the extra cycle of freezing should completely inhibit the ability for the nerve to regenerate, my body will break it down and it won’t come back. A bit like using Weedol on that annoying blighter in the middle of the drive. Chances are there won’t be any pain in the future because there won’t be a nerve to give me pain.

It’s been an expensive and painful journey to get back to running fitness and the journey isn’t finished yet but I’ve learned a lot of things along the way.
1. Always insist upon laying down if someone is going to inject steroids into me
2. Never give up, never give in always move forwards
3. Pointy toes aren’t the answer to every wardrobe issue.