Use It or Lose It

  So for all my midfiftyplusyears I've been very active.  Except for a couple months when I was pregnant with Ryan and stuck in Minnesota during December, January, February in three feet of snow with no car of my own and all I could do was get up, walk around the apartment, go down to the laundry room in the basement (creepy) and walk back upstairs for my daily exercise, (whee, sigh) I've been fairly active or at least enjoy getting out for long walks, bike rides, and of course doing martial arts.
I don't run marathons, but I get antsy if I don't get up from whatever I'm doing and get outside.
I didn't really get injured much, okay there was the rib incident which still plagues me but that's another story, and the time when I jumped up from my kitchen chair to scare off some blackbirds who were eating newly sown grass seed in our backyard and popped my little toe into the chair leg. Moral of that story, let the stupid birds eat the seed and save yourself a broken little toe.
  But while I was laid up for a day or two with that broken toe, the kids learned to do laundry that week.  It was really kind of cool.  The down side was hobbling around for a week and not being able to dress up and wear anything other than a dowdy looking tennis shoe for a speaking engagement. Lovely. But that was over 15 years ago. Time erases the reminders of  "you need to be careful because."  I had forgotten to be careful. And while I wasn't sparring any more in martial arts or jumping off loading docks and beating up the padded attackers in women's self defense class any more, I was still active biking, walking etc.
  So this week things came to a screeching halt when I made an uber mistake while exercising. I had just begun daughter-in-the-far-away-land-of-California, Laura's Little Black Dress Challenge, 12 weeks to a better toned body to look good in, you guessed it, a little black dress for the holidays. I was excited and pumped.  My arms really need help. I had begun to notice the 'waving hello and goodbye" syndrome with my arms. Ew, gross I don't want to be that kind of midfiftyplusyear type woman. So this exercise was going to solve that.
  The first night I get on my laptop and we began the 'virtual class' with seven other wonderful and very young, woman all on my screen. It's a great way to do an exercise class when you either don't have time to run somewhere across town to exercise, or in my case, your coach-daughter is 1,700 miles away.
  We warmed up and went down into a type of pushup called a plank when you rest on your elbows and stretch out your legs and then do a push up and come up on your toes.  It sounds easy and it was until I heard the first pop when I came up on my toes. Hmmm... I get that a lot when moving, those midfiftyplusyear bones and bursa sacs like to make a lot of noise, kind of like Rice Crispies when you add the milk.  But this was a little different. There was some pain to this noise. Not a lot, mind you. Just a twinge.
 So, being the stubborn German woman I am, I powered on through and did my pushup. It was when I went down and came up for the second pushup and heard another pop, I realized something else may be happening besides just old age creaking going on.
  I'm used to having to work through my pain, it's all a part of martial arts, we punch and kick each other so there is pain on a frequent basis, so I kept going. We stood up and did lots of other fun, exhausting exercises and an hour later we were finished.  I struggled back up the stairs with screaming muscles in my gluts and traps. By that time the pain in my foot paled in comparison to the other bigger muscles in my body and so took second place.
  It wasn't until in the middle of the night rolling over in bed I realized something was wrong with my foot. My big toe was insisting on me not touching it. I got up and look but didn't see anything offensive.  It wasn't until the next day I noticed a slight red spot and some swelling plus the ball of my foot also joined in the fray and now I was hobbling. Dang it, what did I do?  I wondered then if it had to do with those pops.
  When I explained to my husband he was concerned as he shares my midfiftysomeyears with me and we both fight to keep each other moving; BenGay is a frequent scent in our home.
  But when I said something to Ryan and Cait they both gave me a funny look and asked, "You hurt it doing planks? How?"
  That's when I knew I should begin to change my story. Who hurts themselves doing a plank? It's like a real safe exercise. You just lay on the floor push up onto your elbows and toes. What's to hurt? Well apparently in my case your big toe.  Embarrassed I just let it go for a day. But by day three things were getting worse. It was hurting to walk in my shoes, the red bump was getting bigger and really did not like being touched.
  So I made a doctor appointment. I have to admit, haven't had much use for doctors in the case of my exercise injuries because the first time I went to the doctor for messing up a rib, he looked at me and said, "Aren't you a little old to be doing martial arts?"  This was almost 20 years ago. I didn't take kindly to his remark.  Then a couple years later I was back at the doctor for knee pain and swelling. Again I get the "You probably shouldn't be working out this hard at your age." spiel. What is up with this? I thought we were SUPPOSED to keep working out the older we get. It's not like I was hang gliding or jumping off mountains for crying out loud.
  So I was really leery of calling in about my toe. But I did because everything I read on "The Internet" our first aid go to these days, said don't mess around with a broken big toe. But after I was asked and laughed at by my x-ray tech who told me "that's why we shouldn't be doing exercise at OUR age," I didn't hold high hopes for any compassion or sympathy from my doctor. I wasn't disappointed.
  She came in and told me that while the toe wasn't fractured, there was a lot of arthritis and soft tissue swelling going on in the toe area as a result, she guessed, of my exercising so I probably shouldn't do anything else but maybe ride my stationery bike for the next month.
  I left feeling defeated and angry, first at my stupid big toe for such a baby when it was only a minor injury, then at society who consistently push us to exercise but then tell us not to.
  What's a gal to do?
   Go to Disney World that's what, with a semi operational big toe!  We already had our tickets, rooms and plans with the family to go.  I bought a new pair of tennis shoes a size larger to accommodate the toe issue. By the end of our vacation my toe nail had turned a lovely color and in a few more weeks would completely fall off.  Gross.
  Moral of the story...there is no moral. If you are going to keep working out which I do, good for you because I was able to walk all over all of Disney World for four days, ride the most awesome rides and have fun because I kept in shape, messed up toe or not.  Yes, I had to deal with a gross and sore toe for a few weeks, but time heals all wounds and sore muscles.  If you don't keep using them, you'll keep losing them!
Good luck!