Peglegged And Cracked

Remember when I posed last week about finally getting some positive forward momentum? Well, fuck all that! This past Sunday, as we were warming up in my sparring class, I was quickly switching stances when I felt a sudden sharp pain in my left leg. On this one website, the injury is described as feeling "like being kicked in the leg from behind: the tennis leg sufferer feels an instantaneous severe sharp pain, turns around to see who kicked them, only to discover that no one is there" which is precisely what I did. I thought someone was messing around and hit me with a cheap shot.

As it turns out, I have been suffering ever since with "tennis leg", a "musculotendinous junction rupture: a stretch, tear, or complete rupture of the connection between the gastrocnemius (calf) muscle and the Achilles tendon"- or in other words, a pulled calf. Hooray!



Haven't been to the doctor, but I immeadiately spoke to both of my brothers about the injury. They are long time athletes (marathon and track runners both) with a minor history of sports related injuries. They have helped a lot in the past with good medical advice. Plus, I tend to freak out a little whenever I am injured, especially with 3 years of hard work behind me and my black belt pre-test coming up. So it was good to get reassurance from the experts (prior to kung fu, I had never really done a sport full bore).

They told me to do the ole RICE thing- rest, ice, compression and elevation- and not to sweat it, a week or two and I should be fine (though the jury is out on the recovery time from various internet sources). Coincidentally, my kung fu school is closed this week which means no classes until the first of September. There is a reunion for Choy Lay Fut style kung fu this week in China. And all my instuctors went which of course means no classes. So the timing is kinda good even though I had counted on practicing my forms this week in anticipation of the test.

But today, I decided to do some additional research on the internet after discovering new bruises below my left calf and on my foot. My brother Dave had said that bruises could indicate something more severe, like a complete tear. And there weren't any brusies initially. But now all of the suddden, my leg looks all beat up (sorry no photos this time). So I started to freak out again.

Thankfully, the bruises are only troublesome if they appeared immediately with a lot of swelling. But I'm still on the fence about going to the doc. I may have to give Dave another ring... Now, what was that I was saying about Sisyphus?