Shooting stars, shooting pains
Apr. 9th, 2025 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeWe had lovely weather today, and after I’d walked as far as the middle school, I decided to go look at the wildflowers in the woods between the middle school and elementary school. So many! We had erythroniums (pale yellow lilies), cynoglossums (pretty little blue flowers on a larger plant), white trilliums, and the purple camas when I got out of the woods into the tiny bit of prairie next to the playground. On the way back, I looked for the shooting stars that had been destroyed a few years ago when workers “cleaned up” the woods… and they were back! One of the plants was in bloom. Terrific!
At this point, I had carefully walked for nearly a mile without any problem from the sciatica (which had gone away for six weeks but returned about a month ago), and I decided to take a very flat route back to minimize further problems, so I went on the sidewalk rather than across the turf field. This seemed fine, although my leg started to feel tired, but then when I was half a mile from home I made the mistake of turning while walking to look at the moon rising over the forest. Big mistake. J was at sword class and couldn’t come fetch me, and it didn’t seem like a big enough deal for phoning D, but it took me quite a while to get home. I ended up figuring out a sort of limp that involved small steps, having my left leg do most of the work, and trying to keep my body as symmetrical as possible, but the changes in elevation in the Safeway parking lot were… not great. Once I got home and took my shoes off I was fine, although my left leg felt very tired and still does. I realized belatedly that I should have taken off my shoes while walking – maybe it would have helped? I’ve never had sciatica while at home and barefoot.
Sciatica brainstorming. The problem is caused by the compression of a lower back nerve, and the Internet tells me it usually involves damage to a spinal disc. Wouldn’t that have symptoms at other times beyond the sciatic pain? I don’t have other lower back symptoms – just the sort of usual mild stiffness/ache I’ve had at times my whole life.
The sciatic pain is on my right side. It doesn’t reach my foot, although the Internet tells me it could. The other thing about my left side is that my left big toe is larger at the base than my right big toe – not at the immediate base but lower than that, perhaps due to when I broke my toe years ago – so the net result is that it can be uncomfortable when I’m walking downhill, and also I’m limited in what shoes I can wear. It’s probably the condition called “hallux limitus.” I can’t just go out and buy walking shoes because my foot might not fit! I discovered several years back that I can’t get my foot into comfy slippers anymore. So the shoes I do have, which are fine with this toe thing, are expensive and not athletic shoes per se. My feet feel fine when I’m wearing them, but maybe they aren’t compatible with whatever’s going on with my sciatic nerve. It would be amazing if I just bought some different walking shoes and the problem went away, but the challenge of buying walking shoes that I can actually wear is non-trivial.
My shoes: https://zierashoes.us/products/zr10029blale
At this point, I had carefully walked for nearly a mile without any problem from the sciatica (which had gone away for six weeks but returned about a month ago), and I decided to take a very flat route back to minimize further problems, so I went on the sidewalk rather than across the turf field. This seemed fine, although my leg started to feel tired, but then when I was half a mile from home I made the mistake of turning while walking to look at the moon rising over the forest. Big mistake. J was at sword class and couldn’t come fetch me, and it didn’t seem like a big enough deal for phoning D, but it took me quite a while to get home. I ended up figuring out a sort of limp that involved small steps, having my left leg do most of the work, and trying to keep my body as symmetrical as possible, but the changes in elevation in the Safeway parking lot were… not great. Once I got home and took my shoes off I was fine, although my left leg felt very tired and still does. I realized belatedly that I should have taken off my shoes while walking – maybe it would have helped? I’ve never had sciatica while at home and barefoot.
Sciatica brainstorming. The problem is caused by the compression of a lower back nerve, and the Internet tells me it usually involves damage to a spinal disc. Wouldn’t that have symptoms at other times beyond the sciatic pain? I don’t have other lower back symptoms – just the sort of usual mild stiffness/ache I’ve had at times my whole life.
The sciatic pain is on my right side. It doesn’t reach my foot, although the Internet tells me it could. The other thing about my left side is that my left big toe is larger at the base than my right big toe – not at the immediate base but lower than that, perhaps due to when I broke my toe years ago – so the net result is that it can be uncomfortable when I’m walking downhill, and also I’m limited in what shoes I can wear. It’s probably the condition called “hallux limitus.” I can’t just go out and buy walking shoes because my foot might not fit! I discovered several years back that I can’t get my foot into comfy slippers anymore. So the shoes I do have, which are fine with this toe thing, are expensive and not athletic shoes per se. My feet feel fine when I’m wearing them, but maybe they aren’t compatible with whatever’s going on with my sciatic nerve. It would be amazing if I just bought some different walking shoes and the problem went away, but the challenge of buying walking shoes that I can actually wear is non-trivial.
My shoes: https://zierashoes.us/products/zr10029blale
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Date: 2025-04-10 10:41 pm (UTC)Hope you feel better by the time you read this!
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