Who’d have thunk one could hurt their foot while doing an innocuous thing like pulling up their trousers? That’s exactly what happened to me close to three weeks back. Luckily, I was able to walk around the house without too much trouble, but certain actions like rising on my toes or unexpected turns gave me excruciating pain.

I was crestfallen.

Most people here know this about me, I love my walks. Wherever I am I rarely miss them. With things not improving enough to let me take my walks, I stepped into the doctor’s clinic. He took one look at my foot and declared ‘No walks for a week!’ Plantar fasciitis my old nemesis had raised its ugly head and had to be paid its dues in the form of rest, hot water soaks and tennis ball rolls.

While I cooled my heels literally in the following days (except when soaking them in warm water!), my thoughts went wistfully to a particularly long walk I took with the Second Born and his friend on my visit to Belgrade. I sighed remembering the it (I’ll be writing about it separately), the exhilaration I had felt. And here I was unable to do my routine walks!

I fretted that not walking, even for five days, was going to make me slide backwards. What if my diabetes worsened because I wasn’t walking? I wondered aloud if my walking had peaked, if this was going to be the beginning of the end (of walks) as far as I was concerned. The L&M’s response was a noncommittal silence.

When the five days were up, I eagerly went out to resume my walks, but found much to my chagrin that my right foot was not yet ready to keep up with the eager beaver of a left foot that was raring to go places. The result was that in a few minutes I was limping back home, sadder and wiser.

I no longer chafed under the restriction. Instead I became patience personified. In my heart of hearts I knew it was better to recover fully than worsen the situation by prematurely putting my foot to use. Twiddling my thumbs became the pastime for a week more. Not really, I was doing a lot of other stuff like playing the piano, painting, reading, playing games, making different kind of salads, all of which didn’t need the use of my foot.

The week went by reasonably fast, and then I tried again. One kilometre, the first day. No pain. Yay! That is victory indeed. Slow and steady is definitely the name of the game. Each day now I increase the distance ever more slightly. Soon I should be back on track, doing my usual distance.

©️ Shail Mohan 2025