Crunchy to the rescue!

Date	Place of run	Push-ups	Pull-ups	Steps at University	1-minute sprints	4 flights	Duration (min)	Start time
2 June	To M. Teresa	25,25	4,4	1:25.80	1	18.95	34	8:02

                So it seems that 1:25 is the baseline time for the steps. Three times running the steps, I’ve achieved something between 1:25 and 1:26 every time--  .40, .97, and .80.  I ran harder today, and I was thinking I would get below 1:25.  NOT.  I thought I would surely break the record. NOT.  With results that are within one second of each other, it makes me think I’m running at the top

of my physical ability. But as Train sings in the song Drive By, “I [think] this can’t be true ‘cause” my body is a bit troubled at the moment. I’m sure I will be running faster soon.

            This morning, June 3, I did some intense yoga exercises. Much of the time I was stretching, I had my body contorted with the legs open, the chest twisted, and one arm weaved under my torso toward the back in order to reach the other had that was winding its way around the body.  It was good because my muscles were groaning most of the time.

            The interesting thing about today is my toe.  On the 31^st of May, I wrote about the toe in this blog. I explained how the doctors had said the toe would get better if it was injured; it would get worse if there was an infection. Sensible.  The doctor asked if I had gone hiking or anything. 

“Yes…two days before it started hurting, but I don’t remember injuring it.” 

“Have you changed shoes recently?”

“Well…yes…”

“How long ago was that? A year?”

“Well, I change them every couple days.”  The thing is that I have several pairs of shoes that I wear for different purposes—one for running, one for Frisbee, one for walking around. Please don’t think I’m getting all aristocratic now…these shoes are second hand shoes. I’m not sure it was wise to buy them.

Finally, she asked if there might be something in the toe of the shoe that was sticking into the toe and bothering it. There wasn’t.

The doctor suggested I soak it in salt water.  The soaking was supposed to draw the infection out to the point where the pus would become obvious, and I may have to come in to drain it (I was thinking I’d treat it like a zit on Animal House and pop it).

I asked if it was possible that the pus may be reabsorbed by the toe. Yes, it’s possible. I asked if it was possible that there would NOT be any visible pus.  Yes, it’s possible.  The doctor gave me some antibiotic and instructions on how to use it if the toe did not improve.

Okay, so I didn’t know what to expect.  Even though I had no expectation that soaking would work, on Saturday and Sunday, I did as they suggested. The toe was hurting quite seriously—to the point where I could not really play very well with my son when I went to the school for a celebration.  There was a possibility that I would be able to go dancing on Saturday night, but I did not pursue that option, either. 

My colleague from Wyoming is a firm believer in using garlic as a cure for nearly all illnesses. She didn’t cut her hair until she was 10 years old (over her mother’s protests). She has leg hair nearly as long as mine.  She tells a story of how her mother cured herself of appendicitis with garlic. Her mother also petitioned for permission NOT to vaccinate her.  Yes, she comes from a long line of crunchy. 

But you know, what’s the point in living life if you don’t try some new ideas—or old ideas as the case may be? 

Sunday morning, I wrote to her, “I’m adding garlic in addition to salt. I’ve been cutting and smashing it. Any other ideas? Should I chew it up and then add it to the water?”  She said that eating some might help, too. I guess I had a pleasant odor wafting around me wherever I went.

During the day, I rode the bike around the city to the pool, to the paintball zone, to the new apartment…  I also soaked it several times. 

The next day, Monday, June 1, the toe was still hurting. I not only ate the garlic straight, but I added a lot to the rice I was eating.  In the evening, during lessons, I DIDN’T have to remove my shoes because of the pain. So…improvement.

On Tuesday, I laced up the running shoe to hold the toe in place—as I described on May 31—and went running. The details of the run are above.  Soaked it again after returning home.  Now, June 3, it seems that the toe is well on the way to health.  

I won’t say this was totally a personal adventure; Miss Crunchy helped.  But this wasn’t the first time I’ve gone against the doctor’s orders.  A couple years ago, the doctors looked at my level of cholesterol and said that I should take medicine—statins, I guess.  I didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon with everyone else in the US and take cholesterol medicine.

So what, right? Don’t want to take it, don’t take it.

But since I’m self-employed AND I don’t live in the US, I needed to get personal health insurance. This was before Obama-care. At first, the insurers didn’t want to take me, and I couldn’t find a doctor who would consider my wishes and my experience—no one would sign a paper that DIDN’T recommend that I take drugs. I even visited two D.O.s (Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine—they are supposed to have a reputation for considering alternatives forms of treatment).

I had to show the insurance company—Lord Voldemort—the last several years documentation of my cholesterol checks.  The results didn’t show the level going down, and it showed a high level of cholesterol—right on the border for recommending drugs and not. But it was stable. So, after sending all this proof to the insurance company, and explaining that I exercise and eat a vegetarian diet, they approved me.  Now I am the proud owner of the right to send $182.65 to the insurance company which uses it to mow the lawn at their exquisitely manicured headquarters.  

Here's a photo from the final day of class with some students.