FOOT FETISH I AM NOT

Growing Older, Getting Smarter Though

I am not a foot fetish and never was I before. Today, however, I am going to talk about my right foot and both my brains. In my 5 foot 9 inch and 180+ pound frame, both my feet get a mighty hell of beating every day. My right foot started hurting about three years ago. I have noticed before that after long hours of continuously standing, being a teacher, at the end of the day I usually got a very sore right heel. Our PE teacher has already commented on this that I might have been suffering from traumatic arthritis. I never thought of that before. Arthritis is a degenerative disease, and I never thought of myself too old to suffer from one being just 35 then.

I am not into contact sports - heavy on running nor on jumping. I though weight trained a lot regularly before my right foot started hurting me. I used to jog too for roughly a couple of hours either outdoors or stationary, but I have never felt pain before in both my feet. After I was hospitalized last November 2007 for acute gastritis, I lost a lot of weight. I felt light then. Due to work pressures, however, I started gaining back weight and failed to exercise regularly as I did before. Then I started feeling pain on my right foot. It was usually accompanied by the usual signs of inflammation. There was usually swelling around the Achilles tendon insertion. In addition to tenderness, the swollen part usually felt warm. It often made walking very painful.

I have come into terms that I am not growing any younger anymore. The right foot pain I am suffering is an indication of this. I plan to get back in good shape again during school break. I have to plan this well and more scientifically. I loss weight faster than I get angry (again), so getting back into shape will never be a problem. I miss so much the days before when I have all the time to go to the gym and sweat it out all my day's frustrations, problems and concerns. The adrenaline rush which usually continued the next day just kept me going on and made me face another day with always new-found excitement. It was a different kind of high.

My gaining of significant pounds of weight has contributed to my foot problem. This is true since my almost 180+ lb frame is carried only by my two calcaneus bones, and the soft tissues surrounding this bone on each foot have also absorbed the blunt of my weight. When swollen and in pain, I usually did a warm compress over the affected area, nothing more. I tended to be conservative with its management. I have never resorted to oral anti-inflammatory nor analgesics to help ease the swelling and the pain. I have also been more cautious wearing again my dark brown Marlboro suede shoes. I often got the pain and the swelling after wearing the pair.

The pain in my right foot, however, has not in anyway affected the way I think about life. I have never ever been smarter with life than I am today. Yes, I am growing not any younger anymore but I have also grown a lot smarter, most specially with how I deal with people. Before I have so much difficulty saying "No". I just could not refuse any request. I just could not turn down any call for trivial help. I just simply could not say "No". Not anymore today, however. I don't want to say that this has anything to do with the pain in my right foot, but I have congratulated myself for this new-found courage. I may not be able to walk straight whenever my right foot is in pain, but definitely today I can look at anybody straight and say "No".