lunabee34

As for what I did with my 20 mile walk:

1. I saw a group of 3 deer very close up in the forest!

2. I gave a dog belly rubs. I went to pet it, and it immediately rolled over on its back and started begging for belly rubs. Friendliest dog ever! <3333

3. I went to the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East.

4. I finally got that Persian ice cream all the way over in Watertown! The cardamom was the best, omggg. The place in Westwood that I like and will be moving far too close to :P doesn't have cardamom. Possibly for the best that the only cardamom ice cream is 10 miles from me and I'm injured, but omg, that was so good.

5. A number of American Revolutionary War plaques, signs, and memorials passed on the way. It was my first time walking through Arlington, and yep, they love their plaques. Oh, on the way from the museum to the ice cream, I was made to understand via multiple markers that I was traveling along the route that General Knox took when bringing the artillery from Ticonderoga, New York, to deliver to George Washington in Boston in the winter of 1775-1776, which was instrumental in driving the British out of Boston. (I don't actually know my Revolutionary War history very well; all my eighteenth century history studies have been European.)

20-mile walk yesterday. It was way more of a struggle than it should have been, and toward the end I was having to spend 8 minutes resting for every 8 minutes of walking (left hamstring pain), but it was better than last week's 13-mile walk.

Lower back pain forced most of the rest stops before that. I had some alarming groin muscle pain on the left side (for the first time since this started), obviously caused by sitting in a position at computer trying to make the knee and hamstring pain go away, but after about 7 miles, it vanished. Thank goodness, because for a while I thought that was what was going to force an early stop.

But, I did manage 20 miles, and the first 13 or so were not too bad. I think the hamstrings might have lasted longer if my route home (a new route I had never taken) hadn't unexpectedly taken me up a couple long, steep hills. The left hamstrings are generally okay on flat surfaces, but uphill is murder. Uphill is a crime against hamstrings, apparently. I think they never really recovered from that.

As for the knee itself, the thing that the hamstring and groin pain are in response to...it's mostly better, but still very much a thing. There was even some popping and sliding today, to the point where I actually broke out my knee brace in the museum and took the elevator (because stairs and knee braces don't mix), but the brace just made the lower part of the knee hurt when walking, so I took it off and took my chances.

So, I persevere. I've spent the last few days trying to figure out a computer position. It's pretty clear that if my foot angle is too dorsiflexed, i.e., toes too close to shin, my hamstrings/back of knee will hurt, and if it's too plantarflexed, i.e., toes too far from shin, my knee will resume hurting and popping.

I keep hoping to find the exact right 90-degree angle that appeases them both, but so far I've only found an angle that makes them both hurt a little bit. I suspect one needs greater than 90 degrees and the other needs less than 90 degees, at least temporarily to heal.

Still hoping to figure something out there. At the very least, attempting to keep it close to 90 degrees has resulted in some dramatic gains. I'm capable of sleeping on both sides now, at least, and of course the 20-mile walk.

Still haven't quite figured out the mattress for the back pain; hoping I can make that work and don't have to give up on it, because after that, I'm not sure I have any ideas. I need to sleep with my shoulders unrounded, I know that, but I'm struggling to make it happen.

Fingers crossed for the knee issue. I just need to figure out some all-day and all-night angles that don't aggravate it, and then it will presumably heal. The fact that this has been on-again off-again for 4 months is clearly related to the angle of repose during the day (esp. at the computer) and at night.