So I’ve been walking to and from the office (2.2 miles one way) Mon-Fri for about four weeks and the health benefits have been amazing. My blood pressure is at a new low of 98/64, my resting heart rate is 65 bpm, and I’ve lost over 5 lbs. That’s all great news, right?!

Ready for the bad news?

Yesterday a doctor diagnosed me with retrocalcaneal bursitis in my right foot.

You’re probably like, “What the hell is that?” Well, if you haven’t clicked the above link because you’re all enthralled in my story, here’s my first-hand description (one, so I can whine and two, so you know for like, reference and stuff):

On the back of my right ankle, at that top of the knobby bone that attaches to the heel, there is a white hot ball of fire that ignites whenever I put a shoe on. It’s the pressure of the shoe that causes 99.99% of the pain. When I’m shoeless, I’m fine. When stand on my tiptoes in bare feet, I’m fine. When I thump the sides of that knobby bone it doesn’t hurt. When I jump up and down it doesn’t hurt. BUT. Put on a pair of shoes and I’m like, dude, kill me now.

Know how I got it? New flats that hadn’t been broken in yet. Sure a little discomfort is easy to ignore when you’re toodling around, but walking over four miles in them was my undoing.

It’s not a quick fix, either. For two weeks I have to wear extra heel support in both shoes (and forget the cute ones for now), pop 800 mg of ibuprofen three times a day to battle the inflammation, ice my heel at night, stretch often to keep the tendon from becoming taut, and and cut down on the walking. That last one is the toughest for me to swallow.

Call me limpy. Call me gimpy. Call me dummy. If there’s a lesson to be learned, it’s don’t take your body for granted. In the back of my head I knew it was a bad idea to wear those damned shoes, but I thought the worst that could happen was a gnarly blister and an ache that would go away overnight. Now I’ve got a legitimate injury that, if I don’t follow doctor’s orders, could cost me an achilles tendon and make my favorite passtime, walking, a much less carefree experience.

Fashion is fun and all. But it’s not worth wrecking your feet. Or the embarrasment of having to take your shoes off in a doctor’s office after you’ve been wearing them for eight hours. Just sayin’.

Tags: achilles tendon, injury, shoes, walking

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at 12:32 pm and is filed under health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.