Dearest Rachel –
Last night – or rather, this morning, at about two a.m. – I was awoken to a searing pain in my left foot…
The pain is a nagging one that extends along my first three toes, and then draws a hypotenuse to my insole, about halfway to my ankle. It’s of such intensity that I can barely stand up for any length of time, let alone walk much; I’m not going to be hitting the gym today, that’s for sure – heck, if I did, I don’t I’d be able to stand up long enough to take the shower I’d need afterwards.
And for the life of me, I can’t figure out what I’m dealing with here. From the picture, you would see something that looks very much like a sunburn – and in fact, the pain I’m contending with does include a burning sensation to it, although it’s not always clear whether it’s sensitive to touch like a burn would be. On the one hand, if I poke myself on the red areas, it’s not particularly painful. On the other, part of the reason I know when it woke me up was because I was staring at my alarm clock after being unable to get back to sleep; the night air was too cold to leave myself uncovered, but the blanket actually hurt to pull over my foot. Even lying on the mattress proved difficult; no position seemed sufficiently comfortable in contact with the affected area.
At the same time, I know it’s not a sunburn. Not only is the pain not consistent with a topical burn – the real heat, if you can call it that, seems to be two or three layers underneath my skin, if you can understand how that would feel – but there’s no way I could have gotten my feet sunburnt yesterday. Sure, I was out in the open air for the better part of the day, but when I’m hiking in the woods with Lars, I’m wearing my hiking boots; if any part of my body is protected from exposure, it’s my feet.
That also would seem to rule out any bug bites, as well. While this felt a bit like the spider bites I dealt with a couple of years ago (my goodness, has it been that long?), it’s hard to imagine how and why an insect would take the effort to crawl that far inside my boots for a bite of blue. Moreover, there aren’t any welts that a big bite would leave behind. So I think that could be ruled out.
Could it just be weariness from walking too far for too long? I will admit that the last mile of our return trip was starting to get to me – I even admitted as much to Lars at the time, and acknowledged that it was probably a mistake on my part to pace about the parking lot while waiting for him to arrive. I got in the better part of a mile while doing so, but it may have cost me as we were wrapping our hike up; I might have simply overextended myself.
Still, I’m not used to suffering the next day from the exertions of the previous one, like you used to from time to time. I remember that there were mornings when, after working in the garden or at the craft fair one day, you would be stiff and sore when you woke up, and would ask me for a massage. I do rather worry that I’ve fallen out of practice (it’s one more reason to hope that Megumi shows up and soon, before I completely lose my touch). But it’s not a skill I’ve ever had (let alone been able) to use on myself. I honestly don’t know what to do about this, because while I can feel the pain, I can’t really see where it is, and don’t know what to do about it.
Since I lack any understanding as to what it is and how it came to be, I’m going to start for now by leaving it alone. If it is a case of over-exertion, the best course of action is to let is rest; there’s no point in exacerbating the situation by trying to work out. After all, pain is your body’s way of telling you you’re doing something wrong; the problem comes when the pain can’t seem to be associated with a specific action that shouldn’t continue to be taken. Hopefully, though, a day of rest will allow it to recover, and even more hopefully, it will let me get some sleep tonight in order for me to do so as well. The folks have insisted that I get it checked out, and apart from prescribing an anti-inflammatory medication, the doctor at the clinic isn’t really sure that there’s much to be done about it, either.
So for now, there aren’t a lot of solutions to the situation, beyond my original plan to wait this out and hope it settles down. To that end, honey, I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need it.
Letters to Rachel 