My ankles are terrible. Everyone who knows me knows this to be true. I have sprained both ankles more times than I can count. When I was in physio school, I was the test subject on “what ankles without any ligaments feel like". My ankles were the catalyst for me to become a physio - more on that in a later post.
Fast forward to two years ago. My youngest was nine months old and I was determined to get back to my favourite sport - Ultimate Frisbee. I have played for 17 years and it has become a part of my DNA but I hadn’t played since I was pregnant with my first. I signed up and played my first game in over 2 years. And it was joyous. JOYOUS. It was like I had found a long lost friend and we picked right up from where we left off.
Then the pain started. I was only playing once per week but every game left me hobbling a little longer. It started with an hour after the first game; obviously, I brushed this off. The next game, it was two hours. By three months in, the pain lasted right through the week. As a physio, I knew what I had to do - continue brushing it off and hope it would get better…. right?
Wrong. I had to quit. I couldn’t walk without limping. I had to face up to the simple fact that we, as health care professionals, are often our own worst clients and I started seeing a fellow physio. She worked her magic to the best of her ability but I was still in constant pain. I got an MRI which showed a plantar fascia three times thicker than it should have been, leaving me with a self-induced nasty case of plantar fasciitis.
Last year I had prolotherapy at St. Paul’s Hospital on the plantar fascia - basically, they cause a new injury on purpose in hopes we can make it heal properly this time. Make no mistake - it HURT. But I kept seeing my physio and did my exercises and it worked. Since about 6 weeks after the procedure, I have been completely pain free.
I’m gradually getting my running back. I’m ridiculously slow but I’m doing it. My goal is to play ultimate in the new year but if it takes longer, that’s okay. I’ve learned my lesson - I cannot rush this and I need to do it properly. I’ve also learned to listen to my body, even if I really don’t want to, even when it’s screaming at me to listen to it.