Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Did I mention…



My feet?

Well I’m going to, as this is my moaning place, and my feet often cause me to moan - and I don't mean in a good way!

I think my problems started last summer, and I think it may have coincided with me putting on weight - which I still have – but am working on.

At first it was just like the normal ‘long day’ foot ache, except it was happening on days when I hadn’t been doing a lot of walking. On days when I did walk a lot, by evening I could barely stumble across the room. And it was just as bad when I awoke in the mornings, sometimes worse.

In fact the only time my feet didn’t/don’t hurt is when I’ve ‘got going’ – and I MUSTN’T stop; as when I do stop, back comes the pain, twofold.

It only took me until Christmas (and our then impending holiday) to realise this wasn’t going to go away on its own. So I went to the doc, who sent me to another doc who specialises in feet.

I was there all of ten minutes. He had me walking up and down his hall, and looked at my feet (didn’t even touch them! Which was a bloody shame as a foot rub has become one of my all time favourite things! And for what he charged, you’d think he could have…)

Turns out I’ve got some sort of fallen arches thing, and I bruise my feet with every step, this in turn produces some sort of protective build up of fluid, which happens every time I stop walking, and so when I start walking again my feet scream at all the nerves. Or something like that, whatever it is – IT BLOODY HURTS.

But not to worry, as he gave me some arch supports (which make me feel like an old lady!) and for a while these have helped. But even with these supports, my feet are now, AGAIN, worse than ever (and I do wear my granny supports all the time, and never walk around in bare feet any more)

Today I even tried wearing boots with heals (yes I know I just said I wear the supports ALL the time, but today was the first day I didn’t, as I couldn’t get them in the boots with my poor swollen feet) in the hope that raising my heals might provide some relief.

Well, as you can tell by the simple fact that you’re reading this, my bright idea didn’t work, and I’m not even sure I’ll be able to get these boots off as they now feel ridiculously tight.

Anyways I’m not to tell you about my big toe nails, as you might be eating, but it’s safe to say they’re paying a price for whatever is wrong.

This is daft, I hate it. I’m only middle aged! Dear heavens what will my feet be like in thirty years?

Don’t answer that!


P.s. the doc dismissed my idea that my weight was playing a part in this – said I wasn’t overweight by medical standards – at least that cheered me up! Though I still think it is partly to blame – maybe my feet just aren’t used to this much pressure ;)

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Alive, kicking, and I’m a pedant!

And as it was a teacher telling me so, then it must be so!

I suppose I should be glad that my son’s Catholic school is even teaching the formation of the solar system, on the other, if you’re going to teach kids something, then shouldn’t it be taught correctly?

This all started when I helped P revise for his water cycle test, you know how it happens – you start glancing through their books, and suddenly you read something like:

‘The moon bumped crashed into the Earth, and that’s why the Earth tilts on its axis.’

The correction of ‘bumped’ to ‘crashed’ is the teacher’s, followed by a big tick. Anyways, I’m reading this paragraph thinking ‘WTF? When?! Was I asleep?’

I must have been asleep at some point, because I studied Planetary Science and I sure as heck don’t recall the moon ever bumping, or crashing, into the Earth.

P’s science teacher assured me it did though.

I stood there seriously questioning the stuff I’d been taught, after all, this man is a teacher – and they must know what they’re talking about, right? So I explained I'd been taught the Giant Impact Theory for the moon's formation, and thought it still stood, and wasn't aware the moon had ever come back and given us a shove. To my surprise he agreed and said that that was what the boys would be taught in Seniors.

So I queried why they were teaching my son this other gibberish stuff right now, and apparently kids can’t understand the same things as us, and this is the let’s make it up as we go along simplified version, oh and I’m being pedantic for brining this up.

Seriously, he said that.

Not sure how amused I am about this, am I really being pedantic?