Posted on June 26, 2010 - by Ashley Jackson

The Elephant in the Road

I’ve been following the World Cup in that disinterested sort of way that people who aren’t really interested in sports still follow them to make sure that their country’s team beats all the other countries’ teams, and as such was sad to discover, upon waking from a peaceful afternoon nap being woken from my afternoon nap by loud and violent thunder, that Ghana had beaten us. Again. I’m convinced that the elephant that was blocking the US team’s bus on Friday was actually an evil omen.

Fortunately, I did not encounter any elephants in the road on Friday (Lazy Friday!). I started the day off with some Liberte yogurt and then, knowing that I was going to a food-heavy party later in the evening, I opted for a mostly fresh, raw lunch.

Grapes, cherries, cherry tomatoes, carrots, roasted garlic hummus, and a piece of provolone.

I had a PA appointment in the afternoon and ate half of a Pure cranberry orange bar leftover from Thursday right before I left. I couldn’t find the cranberry orange flavor locally, so I went ahead an ordered a box of them when I ordered my MP3 player. I was a little hesitant because some of the Amazon reviews mentioned the flavor being off, but I love love love them.  Taaasty.

And then I headed to CFPSM because my left foot? Not better. The first time I went to have it checked out the PA told to come back if it wasn’t significantly better in three weeks. After hurting for a couple of days, it went to just hurting intermittently. And then there were a couple of days when it stopped hurting completely, probably because I ran a mile after not running for a couple of months and then everything else hurt. Naturally, this was around the time I had an appointment with my doctor about my blood pressure and since I thought it had stopped hurting I didn’t say anything about it.

Then a couple of days later it started hurting on and off again, and earlier this week it started hurting pretty much all the time, worse than before, to the point that I was limping in the evenings and icing my foot before bed. (If I’m icing something, it hurts pretty bad. ‘Cause I’m stubborn hardcore.) Also, it was radiating to other parts of my foot and my ankle. This is extremely uncool! Especially since I stopped walking/running in hopes that it would get better and it got worse instead. So yesterday, four and a half weeks after my first visit, I went back. The good news is that I had three x-rays and there is nothing structurally wrong with my foot. The bad news is that my feet are made of biomechanical fail, ’cause I walk too much on the outsides of them. I can’t help it, it’s the way I’ve been walking for 24 years.

So now I have a list of exercises to do in an attempt to strengthen my foot muscles and sometime this week I’m going to go to The Athlete’s Foot to get fitted for a new pair of running shoes that address the specific problems that I have. I was given the option of buying some high-quality pre-made orthotics or having custom ones made and decided to try the pre-made ones first. Then I’m going to try that for another month and hopefully it will solve the problem and I can get back to running…November 7 is inching ever closer!

Oh, also, when I was having my vital signs taken, my pulse shot up to 135 and my BP was around 145/95 (don’t remember the exact numbers). Awwwesome. I was actually shocked enough when I was told the numbers that I said, “Damn!” and then hastily added that I-swear-my-numbers-aren’t-that-high-at-home-anymore-really-honest. I did end up with a headache from my BP getting that high, though, which was annoying because I had to rush home after my appointment, grab a couple of things, and then run to the store to pick up the last of the ingredients I needed to bring to the party I was going to…

One of my co-workers decided to invite our female colleagues over for a cooking and eating party. There were about 15 of us total but I ended up being one of the first ones there (after I rushed! bah!). That was good, because I got to eat half of this by myself…

…I lost track of  how many cream-cheese-salsa-and-cracker sandwiches I ate. I could not stop putting them into my mouth.

I also joined another co-worker in breaking into this lemon tart from Trader Joe’s early. I am always a willing accomplice in such matters. Plus she brought the tart and told me I could have some early.

Man, that thing was tart. But tasty.

I also had some Advil. Apparently I looked unwell, what with my headache and my foot that decided to start hurting after being prodded earlier in the afternoon.

Our hostess had made a concoction of lemonade, lime juice, and pineapple juice to drink. I don’t like pineapple juice, but I tried some anyway, and was pleasantly surprised. I could barely taste the pineapple, which is a very good thing.

The aim of the party was that we were supposed to break into teams and come up with a dish–pizza, salad, or dessert–and then bring the ingredients to the party and cook there. We ended up with four or five different pizzas, a couple of salads, and some Chinese dishes courtesy of a researcher who is visiting from Beijing.

We all loaded up our plates in an attempt to try everything, and I was not the only one who couldn’t clean her plate. Too much food!

Let’s see if I can remember what was on my plate…I ate (or tried to eat) a piece of vegetarian pizza with tomatoes, onions, and peppers; a piece of pizza made with pesto sauce, mozzarella, and tomatoes; a salad made with beans, tomatoes, and sage (from the hostess’s garden!)…

…seven-or-eight-layer salad, a cabbage-filled crepe…

…and some dim sum and sweet Chinese rice balls (which I adventurously decided to try even though they reminded me somewhat of eyeballs).

Jamie and I teamed up to make a blackberry, pear, and goat cheese tart for dessert…

…and I also tried some of the giant cookie that someone made with honey instead of sugar.

There were also banana and Nutella crepes, but there was no way I could eat anymore–I was stuffed by the time I left after two and a half hours. I went home to nurse my headache, which never quite went away, and my poor gimpy foot. I sacked out on the couch with some cherry limeade, yogurt, and Six Feet Under.

I woke up on my own before 9AM, had some more yogurt, and noted that my foot, which typically hasn’t been hurting in the morning, still hurt from the night before. Also, I have this half-dollar-sized bruise on my wrist and no idea where it came from. Hmph!

I spent the morning cleaning and being sucked in by America’s Next Top Model, then broke for a thrown-together lunch of nachos, sans ground beef.

I cleaned some more, then decided it was time for an afternoon nap. I fell asleep for a couple hours before some thunderstorms that were passing nearby woke me up. After determining that they weren’t headed where I wanted to go, I drove away to Cook-Out for some fried deliciousness.

But I’m not made of the stuff I used to be. I ended up saving some of my chicken strips for later…

…and also part of my milkshake.

My plans for tomorrow include going to church in the morning and going for a walk-and-or-run, depending on the weather. I’ve decided that I’d rather my foot hurt while I’m exercising than hurt while I’m sitting around watching TV, since for now it’s just going to hurt no matter what. Might as well hurt while I’m improving my physical and mental health. I’m hovering around 151-152 lbs right now (though the scale at the doctor’s office was 155 lbs even) which is great considering that I haven’t been exercising, but I really want to get back below 150 in the next couple of weeks.

I’m headed to bed soon, but first I need to the exercises the ATC gave me for my foot…sigh…