Grounded

I realized when I walked out of the house this morning that it was the first time I’d been outside since I came in from work Friday evening. That’s just plain ugly, particularly for someone who loves to be outdoors as much as I do! Towards the end of last week I started having problems with my outer shin muscle, the Tibialis Anterior to be specific, and it pretty well kept me confined to the couch all weekend, which sucks to say the least. That particular muscle is responsible for lifting your foot up, among other things, and after spending more than a month now keeping my toes off the ground, I think the poor thing has had all it can take. The bad part is there’s really nothing I can do for it for at least 11 more days and possibly longer than that. As long as I keep my leg propped up or in certain other positions, I don’t have any problems, but when I get up or put my leg in other positions, it really starts to ache. I tried massaging it, but that only made things worse. Ice helps, but doesn’t make it go away. I guess it’s just something I’m going to have to deal with until this is over.

Additionally, I had a good bit of inflammation towards the end of last week, so much so that my entire lower leg was swollen. I was a little concerned about it, but after spending the weekend keeping my leg elevated, I actually have the least swelling now that I’ve had since this happened. In fact, I can even see my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th metatarsals now, something I haven’t even been close to being able to do in well over a month. I had stopped wearing my compression sock, and now I think that wasn’t the best idea. It’s back on now and everything seems to be better.

In terms of how I’m feeling, pretty good actually. Aside from the pain in my shin (which radiates into my ankle), I really don’t have any complaints at all. I’m continuing to test my foot ever so slightly here and there, and the results have been positive. In fact, I can pretty much stand normally without any pain now. I don’t want to push my luck, however, so I’m going to stick to staying off it until July 2. I really hope I get some good news that day. If I’m told I need another 4 weeks on crutches I really don’t know if I can make it (or stick with it). All the signs seem to indicate it’s healing, though, so I’m just going to stay positive and hope for the best.