On Being Injured and Shoes for Walking

For the last 7 weeks I’ve been a woman out of action. I took a fall at Roller Derby scrim, and bashed my head, and when my ears had stopped ringing I realised I’d hurt my ankle badly too.

A visit to A&E informed me, to my relief, that it wasn’t broken, but badly sprained, and I’d be out of action for 6 weeks. I, of course, heard maybe 2 or 3 weeks, so when it wasn’t starting to feel any better by 5 weeks I took myself off to a sports physio. After 2 weeks of stretches and exercises the ankle still feels pretty sore and stiff, but has more movement and strength, and I hope to be back at scrim with an ankle brace soon.

In the meantime, being injured has meant a lot of readjustment. First up. Footwear.

Apart from my running shoes I’ve always been a heels girl, and I found myself disturbingly short of flat, comfortable, walking shoes. Thankfully local company FYFO came to my rescue with a pair of Skechers memory foam trainers. The even bought them to my house, what lovely people! These aren’t running shoes, but they look super funky for wearing to walk in and the memory foam sole has been kind to my ankle. They’re also ideal for home gym fun, like using the rowing machine. They look especially snazzy with knee to toe tubigrip, mmmm.

It’s also taught me a little patience. Not much mind you, I’m incredibly impatient still, but when I first hurt it I got back on skates before I was really ready, fell and reinjured it a little.

That extra time off skates isn’t worth it, and I’m not restraining myself from even minor contact until I’m cleared by the physiotherapist.

I’ll need some of that patience, as over the coming weeks it’s going to be a long hard slog to get my fitness back up. A few sessions on the rowing machine and a bit or core work has been no match for how active I was before the accident, and even then I was still building back up to a previous level of fitness. Still, half the fun is in the journey, right?

The last thing I’ve learnt is how important exercise is to the person I am now. For years I did very little exercise, but running and Roller Derby are important to me, I’ve always been prone to anxiety and depression, and exercise has helped keep that under control more than I realised.

I went for my first run/walk since June this week. 2 miles in just over 25 minutes, a long way from even my super slow 10+ minute miles I was doing before. My ankle felt a little sore afterwards, but nothing major, and I plan to go out again this weekend. I might even put my skates back on for a very slow pootle up and down tonight, you never know.

This is the first time I’ve had an injury that hasn’t healed in a week, and hopefully I won’t be making a regular habit of it. Constantly searching the internet for symptoms, paranoia “is that bit supposed to hurt?” “what if it IS broken after all?” “what if it never gets better?”, and not being able to take part in your favourite activities aren’t fun.

So wish me luck with my recovery, and my new found love of flat shoes!