Just about a year ago, I fucked up my foot and ankle pretty good. That picture doesn't quite do it justice as most of the foot turned black, purple and yellow over the following days. X-rays revealed I had not broken anything, but later someone suggested to me that I might have been better off breaking it. All in all, last February was not a month to remember.
I went to the Emory sports med folks, and they were surprisingly bad. The doctor was anyway. His resident was pretty thorough in his examination but he left the consulting to the doctor which was a shame as the doctor sucked. He looked at it, gave me a photocopied sheet of exercises to do once I could put weight on it again, and had another assistant give me a twenty dollar brace that they charged me eighty for. I guess only noteworthy athletes get more than two minutes. Once I found out what that brace retailed for, I refused to pay for it. So there.
When things took a long time healing I eventually took matters into my own hands and should have done so much sooner. Once I researched my own rehab protocols I got most of my mobility back. I would still not say it's back to where it was but it is much better and I can run again. If I go hard or heavy in the gym it gets sore for a day or two and my one legged balance is still not fully restored. I assume that this is an age-related phenomena. Things simply take longer to heal as we get older and that makes me reluctant to do things that have a significant risk (relatively speaking) of injury. So I won't be learning to ski, not in this life anyway.
On the bright side my deadlifts are headed back in the right direction and I can sprint pain-free again. So life is alright.
