As usual, I’m joining Kim and Deborah for the Weekly Rundown link-up where people share their week of fitness activities.
My week was… interesting, and quite tough. Of course it’s all related to the stress surrounding the foot injury. But the week ended well in many ways, so let’s dig into it.
Monday – all about medical stuff
I went to see my GP Monday morning for a non-foot related issue. But of course had to bring up the foot since I had had so much pain over the weekend. He gave me a referral to go to the nearest A&E for a regular x-ray.
At the A&E I was told I only have inflamed metatarsals and that I’m too young to have a stress fracture. Hmm, I don’t think so based on what I’ve read. And the problem is that stress fractures normally don’t show up only a regular x-ray until it’s in a certain healing stage, so I still know nothing, and still need to treat this as a stress fracture until I know. At least now I know it isn’t a full fracture, and the compression sleeve they gave me had a dramatic pain relieving effect.
When we came home there wonderful spring weather and not much wind either. You other people would have gone for a nice run or walk! I was almost pain free and decided to embrace the moment so I hobbled out in the garden and picked some weeds. It was wonderful to do something normal!
Tuesday – gym day
This was a quite good day and I still had low pain levels. My strength session in the gym was great as usual. I did some good barbell chest presses, flyes, and bent over reverse flyes, to name a few. I also did a good hamstring curl, lying face down on a mat, and using a resistance band. I felt so good doing something for my legs!
Wednesday – a huge setback
The pain was back with a vengeance, and I had to realise that trying to be careful and avoiding what causes pain isn’t working, I still do too much and the foot can’t heal.
They finally contacted me about the MRI and it won’t happen until the 18th of May. I was NOT impressed. This is a private hospital, WTF?? I had a good cry and then contacted my GP by e-mail. The recommendation was crutches full time (I had already got them from a pharmacy online) to avoid weight bearing.
At the end of the day with some kind of plan, I was in a much better mood. I think the most exhausting with this whole foot issue has been not knowing what to do or expect, different ideas, no clear information, no plan.
However – nothing has changed. I’m not any worse than I was before knowing I can’t have an MRI for another month. And if it is a stress fracture, many doctors don’t even order MRIs for it, they diagnose it by examination only. And even if I would prefer having a verified diagnosis, for now I just have to deal with it, move on, use the functional body parts, focus on what I can do and enjoy that. But it’s hard.
Thursday – mobility
I started the day with some shoulder and hip mobility work, and back extensions. Everything felt awkward but I went for the slow tune session in the evening for my mental health.
Friday – gym day
Until this week’s setback, I’ve continued doing some standing exercises in the gym, such as shoulder raises and the likes. We’re stopping that now and I’ll only do seated and other bench or mat exercises. My trainer has to hand me the weights. It feels shit but at least I can train. If I was on my own in a regular gym I doubt I would be able to do it.
I did dumbbell chest press, flyes, tricep pullovers, seated shoulder press, bent-over reverse flyes, and some work on ankle mobility and hips. Overall it was a good session but I got to failure earlier than usual with chest press and pullovers. I was terrified my muscles were strained from using crutches.
Overall it was a good session, but I didn’t feel good on Friday night. It was like the gym session made it so evident how much I can’t do and won’t be able to do for a long time. I was sad and upset over all the strength I’ve built up that will potentially be lost. Is there even a point with trying to stay fit? Do I have to start from scratch with my strength training after this? But later I managed to pick myself up. I have to keep going and not lose more muscle than necessary. And I have to keep reminding myself that this is only temporary.
Saturday
Saturday morning started like Friday evening. I was upset and teary. Then I talked to my better half and he is so sensible. He gave me some good reminders how much I can do, that I should use this time to train more and get stronger than I otherwise would have been, except the legs and feet obviously.
Then I got into training clothes and did some work for hips and glutes – donkey kicks, fire hydrants with resistance band, my favourite side plank with twists and hip dips, hip circles and more.
While having dinner we watched a documentary on YouTube about some young wall climbers and their journeys in life. One of them suffered a knee injury and had to have two surgeries. She was away from climbing for a long time but got back to the 2021 Olympics and won a gold medal. Sadly she had to retire after this but that was because of a back problem.
The message was that injuries can make you stronger. It was very inspiring and empowering and gave me some oomph back.
Sunday – more at-home strength workouts
My mood is in a much better place, especially after doing push-ups and mobility exercises. My body feels quite good, and the foot is much better than it was earlier in the week.
This isn’t the happiest weekly rundown post from me, but that’s it. At least the mental part of it is getting better. Now I need to stay focused, move on, make a good at-home strength program with more variation, do things that make me happy, and so on. Hopefully I’ll have a better week next week!
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