[healthwork] Podiatry notes

[kaberett]

What I have been doing, in terms of leg-focussed physio, since last time:

• 5-10 minutes a day with a rolling pin under my arches, usually during breakfast/while doing Duolingo
  
• 3x50s balances, one on each leg, with orthotics, making sure to bring my hips into alignment at the beginning of each rep (I moved up to eyes-closed, one-finger-lightly-on-something while in Cornwall, in order to avoid the sort of flailing that obviously wrenches my knees)
  
• working from 5x35s seated calf stretches to 10x35s seated calf stretches, each leg, +1 per week

Things noted during the appointment:

• my arches hurt MUCH LESS when prodded: rolling has greatly improved the plantar fasciitis, and I'm to keep doing it, but go more gently on the particularly tender spots just below the balls of my feet
  
• I am managing to correctly bring my hips into alignment when standing on both feet, and maintaining it when going over onto one foot only! I am SO PLEASED about this. Also discussed: trying balance work completely minus the heel raises, so they've been removed and this evening's round of work seems not to have instantly been terrible; if it goes wrong, add them back in and have another go in another six weeks. (Also, I can buy a duplicate set of orthotics to stick in the slippers so I don't have to swap back and forth; I need medium-density i.e. the blue one.)
  
• during leg stretches, it is more important to keep my ankles in alignment i.e. not do the stretching-the-outside thing I've been doing, that to make sure I'm keeping toe and knee in ideal alignment, so long as I make sure I'm engaging all appropriate muscles. A small amount of knee support might be appropriate, but stretching my hamstrings as well is no bad thing under the circumstances. Great improvement here, as well.

I'm to get in touch in about a month and ask to see them again about two after that, because I'm not yet strong enough to move on to the next set of exercises but I am making good, obvious, measurable progress, so hopefully at that point I'll be ready to step, as it were, up.

(Today has been rough for a variety of reasons. This, in particular, is very satisfying, and makes me feel substantially more positive about sticking with the work. Health interventions that have obvious positive effects for me are so unusual -- I think this is actually the first time I've ever had leg physio that hasn't caused everything to deteriorate obviously and immediately, so I'm just -- I'm really satisfied, okay.)