My best friends are my new crutches! Well, only one is new. I bought one last year during a BACK PAIN incident, not thinking I’d ever need a pair again. Looking back at my old blog posts from February 2011 it seems I was out and about a lot more and much sooner after spraining (actually fracturing, as I found out last week) my left ankle. On the other hand, I had one good foot back then, which made getting around easier.

I went out on a tapas tour yesterday afternoon, finishing up at La Azotea where I had planned to meet my friends Claire & Kyran who are in town this week. Talk about bad timing! I had wanted to take them out for sherry & tapas, but they seem to be doing well enough on their own.

Anyhow, it felt really weird going out yesterday – the first time in almost a week – and it took me awhile to get over feeling “vulnerable” out there. But on my way to pick up my clients I passed a woman with one crutch who waved at me and said “looks like I’ve got some competition!”. So we stopped and chatted for a bit. She had a hip problem and was sporting the same style and colour of crutch as mine (like those on the right, but black and silver). And somehow that encounter made me feel better.

So yeah. Pretty painful walking still. Curiously my right foot hurts more than the left ankle, though perhaps that’s from the bruising? The whole top of that foot is still black and blue. And of course I’m now getting all kinds of secondary pain from walking funny. Cramps in feet and calves and – the worst! – my back almost giving out yesterday. You know, as much as my feet and ankles hurt I can deal with that way better than serious BACK PAIN. So today I’ve been slapping on the BioFreeze (thank you Sled!) and am back to being housebound. Basically because tomorrow I’ve got a press conference to attend, and then will meet Claire and Kyran for lunch. There will be less walking involved this time, but who knows, it might actually be easier mañana. As long as my back holds out!

What are you guys up to?