Injury Update: More Acupuncture, Rest, Heat, & Drugs

ONE: I've had 2 more rounds of acupuncture since this post nearly 2 weeks ago. The 2nd round was the most uncomfortable I've been laying on that table for 40 minutes. Robert did some "estim" (or "electric stimulation") on 4 points in my foot: a pair up my ankle, and a pair near the arch. It caused my toes and foot to flex about once/second (just a bit faster). Here's an Instagram video of estim on my quads from 2.5 years ago - it was like that, but less "constant" as the pulses were close to a second apart. My foot was then sore the next day, as it had a "workout" at acupuncture.

TWO: I had another PT appointment this week, and she's telling me to do what I think is best. It wasn't until we were chatting that I realized it had been 2 weeks since I swam, and I realized (as I was saying it) that I was OK with that. I think the resting is helping A LITTLE, so I'm going to keep it up for another few weeks.

So still no swimming, biking, or running. No weight-bearing leg exercises. Off my feet as much as possible. And those boring "toe yoga" exercises to build strength in my foot.

Stopped swimming over 2 weeks ago - just strength training.

THREE: PT told me to try heat. Before that, I'd been trying localized icing at her recommendation. There's not any noticeable inflammation to speak off, but icing still felt good. Now we'll see what heat can do. (Not noticing any difference yet.)

FOUR: It's time to try an ibuprofen regimen as well. My pharmacist wife is guiding me on a safe ibuprofen regimen: for the last week, I've been taking 3-4 pills (600-800 mg) 2-3x every day. The trickiest part is to make sure I have food in my stomach for the middle dose (on days I take 3 doses). I've been doing OK about having HEALTHY food (like a banana and a clementine) as a mid-afternoon snack when I take my middle dose. The idea is to have my body always have some of ibuprofen's anti-inflammatory properties in my system to help "kill" anything that's inflamed and sore. It's not for the pain killing benefits, but for the inflammatory killing benefits. We'll see if that does anything.