Plantar fasciitis

This post is for those of you who were wondering what the pink tape was for in the last post.

I played netball (New Zealand's attempt at basketball) a few weeks ago and the next day I could barely walk. It felt like I had glass in my feet everytime I tried to walk. By last Sunday, I thought for sure I had broken part of my heel off. So, I self-diagnosed me and was ready to go get an x-ray when a "Dr." asked me what I did. He didn't believe me - apparently it's pretty difficult to shatter your heel by playing netball. He diagnosed me with plantar fasciitis, inflammation on the arch muscle that connects to the heel. I was very disappointed in the diagnosis because about 10% of Americans have it and a common cause is obesity. I though for sure it had to be something more serious to match the pain I was having. I have to admit that I've never taken anyone seriously who suffered from plantar fasciitis. And now I have it.

So, I made an appt with the alternative medicine doctor, Dr. Sam, and he checked everything out, from diet, to sleep patterns, history of car accidents.... He gave me a path to wellness and said he could fix me but it would take time. He tried to release the nerves around the achilles and calf muscles and then used Kinesio tape to help stretch and relax those muscles so they wouldn't pull on the arch. And the only color he had was bright pink. He put the tape on me on Friday and said I needed to keep it on as long as possible.

That last until Saturday night.

Then, I decided to go see my p.t. who helped me with my knee. He said the main problem is that my achilles and calves are so tight they are straining and pulling on the arch muscle. So, he taped up my arches to give them support, gave me some stretches to do and said it should be feeling better within a couple of weeks - only if I wear super supportive shoes. That will be tough because I live at the beach and that means I can't wear flip flops. So, this is what my feet looked like after visiting him. He said that I should keep this on as long as possible.

It lasted a day.

Now, I am wearing running shoes wherever I go, even in the house and I can't go on any walks or jog for the next 2 weeks. And I need to apologize to you if I ever smirked or rolled my eyes when you talked about your painful heels and plantar fasciitis. I understand now.

kiwi ingenuity

So, I don't have a lot of space to store stuff in my apartment and one of the places I use is the space above the cabinets in the kitchen. I had my camping gear up there, some tutoring books and other random stuff. Thinking that the top of the shelves went all the way to the wall, I put my American friend Dana's book on top of the cabinets. But I put it in the 6-inch gap of the top of the cabinets from the wall and as soon as I let it go, I heard the sound of paper fluttering to the bottom. Dana and i were stumped how to get it out. We kept saying we need kiwi ingenuity - Kiwis seem to have a built-in MacGyver quality about them.

So, I asked my landlord and this is what he came up with - rope, a hand weight and duct tape.


I had a few attempts and one by one started getting the random papers that had dropped down there too.


Here's dana and her little boy Max waiting.


And finally, I got it.


Thank you Kiwis - for never doing anything the conventional way and always having some crazy idea that works.