Pool time

"Sooner or later we all end up in the pool." – Bob Chipkin

I can just picture my friend Chip saying this to me as we were leaving the newspaper and walking out to the parking lot.

It was years ago and I had been complaining that my plantar fasciitis was keeping me from all exercise except swimming.

I guess that is a recurring theme for me. Some people have an "achilles heel" in an elbow or knee that intermittently gets re-injured. For me it is my feet. Not plantar fasciitis this time, but rather the pain in my toe and the top of my foot.

While I waited the couple of weeks for the appointment that I had Tuesday with a podiatrist, Joe kept telling me to wear the boot. I tried a little but quit because Dr. Holt had said it wouldn't help much and also because I didn't think i't wasn't doing much for my toe.

The new podiatrist said it is tendonitis with a couple of other things going on; he suggested giving it two weeks and then coming back for a possible shot...and wearing the boot. Dr. Joe said what did I tell you.

Yesterday I went to the Northampton Y thinking I was going to a Pilates class, but the schedule had changed, and I didn't realize I had gone into a yoga class. I did the first few minutes on the mat, but when she switched to sun salutations I had to leave because I can't put any pressure on that toe.

 I went swimming instead, doing some laps and some water jogging, which feels silly but is actually difficult and good exercise.

 It is hard for "normal" people to understand this, but the hardest part for me is actually sitting down on the edge of the pool without coming down hard on my rear end. I have worked hard on those quad muscles, but I think that even though I am on a low dose of prednisone, my muscle tone remains diminished.

I walked back and forth, scoping out the side of the pool and looking at the ladder, wondering if I should just climb down. But that isn't so easy either. I wondered if the lifeguard was wondering what my problem was.

While I am sidelined maybe I should do some wall squats or even repeatedly stand up and sit back down in a chair to work on those muscles. In the distant past I would just dive right into a pool. But then again in the not so distant past it was hard for me to even stand up and sit down once.

So thank goodness for being able to get into the pool tat all o stave off  shpilkes as much as possible.