Huh. I’m unemployed. For the first time in 24 years. Wait. That can’t be right…I’m not that old, am I?
I spent the first week of unemployment in bare feet or flip flops. Why wear shoes if I don’t have to? Especially when my time was mostly spent like this: sleep, eat, read, swim, repeat. None of those require shoes.
After that first week, I noticed my heel started hurting, to the extent I was limping and couldn’t put any pressure on it. Huh. Weird. I’m known to be a total klutz, so I thought back to my activities from the previous week – did I fall, trip or crash into anything? Did I run over my own foot or something? Nope.
I finally went into the doctor and had them take a look. She checked my achilles heel – nothing wrong. Checked my foot – not broken.
“Hmmm…I think you might have some tendinitis in your foot. Ice it 2 -3 times per day and take Ibuprofin every 6-8 hours. Come back if it’s not better after a week.”
How in the world did I get tendinitis in my foot after a week of laying around? Then it came to me and at the risk of sounding like a total lazy bones, I asked, “Ummm, I just got laid off of work…I’ve spent most of the last week in bare feet or flip flops. Could this be it?”
BINGO! JACKPOT. Yes. In fact, you can get tendinitis from walking barefoot from your bed, to the couch, to the lounge chair, to the pool, to the lounge chair, to the fridge, to the lounge chair, to the pool, to the fridge, to the…oh you get the picture.
I knew there was a reason I always wore heels to work! For my health and safety! All this talk from podiatrists about how bad heels are…how these ill fitting, tall devices we strap on are mangling our feet…pffft! So you know what I did? I went out and bought three more pairs of heels. For my health and safety. I mean, these feet have a lot of work ahead of them…it is important that I take care of them! Don’t ya think?
It does make me giggle, who else do you know would get tendinitis AFTER being laid off from work when the toughest thing I did was decide which new book to start and which beverage I should pour into a cold glass? I. Mean. Really.
So let this be a word to the wise, high heels are NOT the devil. They are very important orthotic devices and podiatrists should highly recommend them.
Medical Update: I’ve since added daily high heel wearing to the icing and Ibuprofin regimen and just like magic, my heel has healed! It’s a miracle!