The Best Laid Plans

Ever notice the more you look forward to something, the more likely it is something will happen to throw a screw into the works?

For a full week before I left for my Camino, I don't know if I had a bug or if it was nerves that were making me feel so nauseous.  Lasted pretty much until the day I started walking.  

When the kid came home from her European travels in October, she brought a nasty, persistent cough with her.  I managed to steer clear of picking it up for three weeks.  Right up until the day we left for our little Seattle sojourn. Then I got it with a vengeance, along with a wicked sore throat.  I soldiered through but it really took a bit of the shine off the trip.

But nothing was going to ruin our planned post Christmas trip, my gift to the kid and my mum.  Three nights, December 26th - 29th, at the beautiful Crystal Cove Resort at McKenzie Beach on the west coast of the Island.  I'd booked it back in July because there was no way, no how I was doing the usual Christmas schtick another year.  Enough with the presents and the tree and the decorations and the turkey.  This year I'd be lounging in the hot tub, strolling the beach rain or shine, sipping wine by the fire.  I was so so so looking forward to it.  Yup, shouldn't have done that.

December 26 I wake up with a sore foot.  Nothing unusual in that.  I get this thing I call my 'foot pain' every now and then.  On the inside of my right foot, right on the bone above the arch.  99.9% of the time I can walk it off.  This happened to be the .1% time, forcing me to walk on the outside edge of my foot.  No biggie, I can deal.

We drove through a winter wonderland to arrive in pouring rain in Tofino.  You haven't seen rain until you've seen it bucket down on the west coast.  The wind picked up.  Surf crashed on the beach.  People pay good money to spend time at the coast during storm season.  And what would make that foot feel better than a nice soak in the hot tub before bed.  Umm...not a nice soak in the hot tub before bed?  I paid the price all night.  It ached, it throbbed, it swelled.  By morning my toes looked like stuffed sausages on the end of my foot.  Guess this was one of those ice, not heat, injuries.

I googled foot pain diagrams. I've had plantar fasciitis and this wasn't it.  Best guess? Something involving a tendon.  Posterior Tibial Tendon Tendonitis seemed to fit the bill. Treatment?  Ice.  Uh, yeah, I figured as much. And ibubrofen.  I always carry ibuprofen in my purse.  Except I didn't bring my purse.  Neither did the kid.  Or my mother who kept saying, 'we should go home.'  Did she know how much I'd paid for this retreat?  There was no freakin' way I was going home. To top it off it was Sunday.  Not much open on a Sunday.  So I hobbled on the beach, soaked in the hot tub with my foot hanging out the side, and drank wine.  And more wine.  After two nights of serious pain, I toodled into town and went to the pharmacy.  It seemed like mere minutes after taking an extra strength Advil Liquid Gel that the pain waned, the swelling deflated and I could walk like a semi-normal person.  At least I'd have one day and night without contemplating loping it off while I split firewood.

If there's a bright side -- and there always is -- I learned this.  It forced me to slow down and appreciate everything around me.  I was suddenly walking as slow as my 87 year old mother without getting frustrated by her pace.  I learned that I should keep ibuprofen on my person at all times.
    My plan had been to go to the doctor as soon as I got home.  That didn't happen post-holidays.  And it was no longer Emergency Department worthy.  Isn't that always the way?  By the time you get into the doctor, the problem has resolved itself -- until the next time it crops up and the vicious circle begins anew.

And now I'm thinking about my upcoming trip to the UK...the 160 km walk on the Cotswold Way...all the tours we have booked...

And I'm not looking forward to it at all.

Nope, not one little bit.


Book Reviews:  Didn't realize I'd gotten so far behind.  Descent by Tim Johnston came highly recommended to me personally.  The kind of book that my book club had me pegged for.  There was much to like, especially in the climax and ending, but the lead up dragged a little for my liking.

Michael Connelly writes two series, one featuring LA cop Harry Bosch, the other Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller.  He puts the two characters together in his latest, The Crossing.  Another good read in a long line from Connelly.

December's book club selection was Savage Harvest:  A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest for Primitive Art by Carl Hoffman.  It didn't go over big with the club.  Except for me.  I couldn't put it down.  Fascinating stuff.

I picked up YA novel Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger because a young girl I know writes a book review column in our local weekly rag.  She made it so sound intriguing I just had to read it.  And I'd always wanted to check out the steampunk genre.  It didn't grab me at first, but once I tuned my ear to Carriger's tongue in cheek style, it was a pretty good read.  Might even pick up the next one in the series.

She's a prolific writer but I've never picked up anything by Karin Slaughter until Pretty Girls.  I would have liked to have read this one in a shorter time frame to keep the tension going but as these things go it was rather spread out over a couple of weeks.  Definitely a book where one's credulity is strained but it was a decent read with some pretty graphically disgusting descriptions.