Everything is blooming here, other than things that are already nearly done blooming. In the front yard the wild roses and rhododendron and irises are done, but Pink Grootendorst is still setting new buds and so is my favorite double white rugosa. The honeysuckle and salal are still in flower, and the ceanothus is covered in bees, and the other flowers are getting close to opening. Lucifer looks like it will pop a week or two early this year. [I try not to notice the red lines under three botanical names my computer thinks I’ve misspelled.]

A minute ago there were a half dozen groups of walkers out in front of the house. I try not to look. I have not had a run or even a walk since the first of June.

Everyone I know has advised me to see a doctor about my foot, so after giving myself a few weeks to improve, I did. I hobbled in to the walk-in clinic this morning. There was no doctor, of course.

I have discovered just today that if I step only on my left heel and spare my forefoot, there’s no pain at all. The nurse took my BP, which was high, but he asked me questions while he did it, gave me no time to take quieting breaths, and didn’t support my arm. It was high; it usually is in a medical office. [Both readings dropped more than ten points at home, and my machine has been checked and verified as accurate by my doctor.]

The PA who saw me is a runner and we traded war stories. We talked about shoes, how companies wreck us when we’ve finally found the right shoe and they change the last or discontinue it, injuries, the 8-mile wall when training for distance, and biking. I explained that my aversion to biking is practical since the highway is dangerous and that’s all I have other than the beach, personal because I hate messing with gears and mechanical breakdowns, and superstitious because a neurosurgeon was struck and killed on her bike three blocks from our home. He understood even that last, since he remembered the accident. I told him people kept insisting I shouldn’t take aspirin, and he said, “Why? Aspirin is great!” It’s not only great as a pain reliever, but more importantly as an anti-inflammatory.

[Note that I have never reacted badly to aspirin. People have been using this medication for 2400 years, the chemistry was isolated in Germany in 1853, and it’s been sold as a pain medication since before 1900. It can do harm and serious damage in some conditions and to some people, but I stopped using it a half hour before my runs only because it might impact me by drawing calcium to neutralize the acidity. I take aspirin when needed. Acetaminophen or paracetamol, what’s in Tylenol, has been around since the mid-1800s, is useful for pain and fever, but is less studied and has another whole set of issues. It’s the leading cause of drug overdoses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. So. Judicious use of aspirin works for me.]

He asked me where it hurt, pressed all over my foot without causing me any pain at all, and after discussion suggested I might want new shoes. [On order: Hoka, Clifton 9 in 7.5 wide, and “wide” is tricky to find sometimes.]

They can’t cast or tape the sort of injury I have, not even if it’s broken. My foot needs rest and time.

He said if my foot is worse or isn’t improving at all after 6-8 weeks I should come back and they’d “likely” refer me to an orthopedist who would “likely” X-ray my foot, and maybe inject a joint with steroids. Fun.

He also cautiously suggested my injury might take a year or a couple years to fully heal. That’s kind of what I thought.

So, Gary has brought me hot mint tea, a glass bottle of water, and the last crumbs of the Kettle chips, and went off to work in the garden. I intend to write this post and then read for a while. My tea is already cold but I’ll drink it anyway. I will avoid the stairs today, watch cable, read some more, and tonight allow myself two glasses of wine.