Slowly Healing from a Sprain

The obvious physical injury that set me back quite a bit happened when I was going down some steps. My knee went out of joint, I missed the bottom two steps and landed badly—managing to sprain both ankles. Thankfully my daughter was with me and got 3 bags of ice: one for the knee and one each for the ankles.

ankle_bonesMy main worry was whether I’d be able to walk or even work the next day—at a school that has more than 70 steps to negotiate. I managed to find all the school’s elevators and hobbled along, with throbbing, bruised and swollen ankles causing concern—or at least some curious glances—amongst the people I met.

I was assured that healing, swelling and bruising takes longer as one gets older—thanks for that reminder of old age. Another reminder is that the body is a package deal: what goes on in one part has a ripple effect—I’d hobblewalked for so long, that when the ankles were down to normal size and colour, my back started seizing up.

spineWhile I wasn’t even thinking about getting exercise back into my routine, I still had to keep moving; when the school year was finished I had to pack up my house and get it ready for selling. Thankfully my family was willing and able to help with the lifting of heavy items and scrubbing down walls and cleaning windows. However, in order to keep on walking, landscaping, shopping, painting, sanding, and staging the house, I made weekly trips to the chiropractor. She told me that with my back problems I shouldn’t be doing such physical labour, and gave me some exercises to do in between visits.

Sure enough, when the work on the house was complete and it was declared ready to go on the market, the pain in my back was instantly alleviated. But I was still wary about walking any long distances, taking it slowly—grateful for moving with the absense of pain.

Directly on moving out of the house, I went to stay with my daugther in Hawaii, and she got me started on increasing my pace, as well as introducing me to GENTLE yoga. She motivated me to be more proactive in getting my body back on track.

Though still not on the same track as I was over a year ago, I’m at least not sitting on the sidelines watching others actively enjoying life. Even as recently as this past week, I put my proactive tools to work when I woke up with back spasms. I put ice in the waistband of my sweats while doing the dishes, drank some extra aleve with my morning tea, then did some yoga stretching—so effectively that I was able to have ‘normal’ days.

I find it mildly interesting that there are ‘go-to’ remedies for my physical maladies, but not much to do about the mental problems.

[Img.src: ankle, spine]

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