Much as I would love to recount to you a journey along the length of the Newry Canal I can’t. It seems I have a case of shin splints and will have to rest my leg to let the swelling go down. The exact duration of this imposed rest is a little unclear, it depends on who I ask; my astrologer tells me I must rest until Mars enter Cancer and a jackdaw is seen roosting on a pig’s back; my physio oiled, iced and heated my shin then used an ultrasound machine (or possibly just rubbed my leg with a bit of cucumber and hummed a bit) and judged that I could return to walking at the weekend; but my doctor has suggested 2 weeks rest is required. Well I say my doctor but the 2 week prognosis comes directly from the NHS Choices website which my doctor was not very surreptitiously reading from when I asked the question. Actually I think he was a bit surprised that my leg didn’t display the bright red oval of swollen tissue with emphatic wiggly lines radiating from it because that was what was shown on his website cartoon drawing of a shin splint.
So plan “A” at the moment is to rest my leg until Friday and if it is pain free I will try to return to the hike, if it returns I will rest it a bit longer. Frustrating, annoying, and all a bit pathetic but this is the best compromise I can secure from Fern – she tells me the alternative is that I return to the walk sooner but that the instant I fall asleep she will take a claw hammer to the knee-cap of my good leg.
I very much regret that this blog makes my wimpyness so public but on the up side it does have the effect of increasing my determination to complete the hike.
Comments are closed.