Date: 2008-05-05
From: Home

To: Home
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

So I got a good review from the doctor. The nurse asked me all sorts of questions regarding the pain and location of the pain, and entered it into her laptop, and then the doctor came in, with a laptop (same one?? I dunno. He never opened it) and proceeded to squeeze my toes and wiggle them around and press really hard on the bottom of my feet as I tried to explain where the pain was and how it felt. Nothing he did really hurt, so I guess I have to have 40lbs strapped onto my back and be hiking up or down a steep hill to get the pains? He said "There is nothing mechanically wrong with you feet". So no stress fractures, or hurt tendons or anything like that. The swelling that I was feeling had gone down by today, so he didn't detect any significant swelling. Basically, he told me the same thing my friend told me on the phone....rest it for a while longer, and get shoes with a wider toebox to alleviate any pressure on the toes, and get an insole that gives more support. He recommended Spenco. It was basically what my friend said, without the Spenco endorsement. (And my friend was 800 miles away when he made his diagnosis....)So, I'm off to REI tomorrow to talk to their shoe guys and see if I can find a boot/trail runner that has a wide toe box. And talk to them about the orange superfeet insole vs. the spenco super-insole. The doctor recommended the spenco because you can stick it in the oven and warm it up, then when you take it out and stand on it, it will mold to your foot shape, which in theory, gives better support. Although I had a couple of people really endorse the orange superfeet insoles through thier experience. Hmmmm... tough call....So I will start getting my act together to get back out on the trail next week. I will spend time here giving my foot more time to heal, and I will get to see my out of town cousins who I rarely see, and spend some time with my mother for mother's day before I head back out. Of course, I am in no hurry to leave my wife again, since I like spending time with her. But I am hoping that becuase I got to spend almost 2 weeks with her, it will be easier this time around to get dropped off. For those of you reading this in prep. to do your own hike...plan for occasional time off to go see loved ones,(more than a day or two at a time) and plan in time for zeros and nearos, so that you don't over exert yourself and get injured. I didn't plan in enough "off" time into my schedule, and I think it caught up with me. So learn from my mistake! (Three weeks of hiking without a day off is NOT a good thing)Harper's Ferry, here I come. I feel wierd skipping 500+ miles, and starting up again way up here. Oh well... it will make finishing easier in the end. So I guess I am officially a section hiker now? I def. fit into the unconventional category as far as method. I talked to Gobbles, and he was 5 minutes late for his doctor appt. and so they wouldn't see him. What a bunch of jerks! What kind of office does this doctor run? So he goes back tomorrow. I hope he gets a clean bill of health, so he can join me. He is trying to get a hold of Hokewa, to see if he is interested in jumping north too, but no contact yet.time to sign off. I'll make more postings of my new shoe adventures, and let everyone know how the insoles work out for me....