For the record, putting your foot in a bucket of ice water really, really hurts. Really, really, really hurts.
About 3 weeks ago, I was walking down the hall at the office, and my right foot felt like a joint needed popping. So I stood up on tiptoe and put all my weight on it, hoping that would rearrange the bones or tendons or whatever was a little out of whack. Instead, whatever it was that was slightly annoying became rather painful - I spent the rest of that day and part of the next limping around. And on that next day, I had the fatheaded idea that wearing clogs would make my foot feel better - because they would make it less necessary to bend the foot while walking. Totally did not work - and on the way to the bus that evening, I twisted the same ankle falling sideways off the clogs (they're the kind with the rubber soles and the backs, and the soles are about 2" high).
From then until very recently, I was able to walk around fairly well, but with some pain. If I were off my foot for a while (like, for instance, driving cross-country for Thanksgiving), it felt pretty good, but reverted to painful if I had to walk any distance at all. So once we got home after our minor holiday odyssey, I took my foot to a massage therapist to see if he could find the original issue and rub it until it went away. And he may have actually done that - but he also thought that what I had was a ligament problem and that I should ice part of my foot, or if I couldn't stand that, alternate 5 minutes of ice with 10 minutes of heat.
I did try, but the painful bit was on the top of my foot, and keeping a plastic bag of ice balanced in the right place made me sit sideways - and that made my knee hurt. So I thought I'd be clever, and I filled a large pan with water and ice, and proceeded to put my foot in it, figuring that total immersion would include the painful area.
Only I can't keep my foot in ice water for 5 minutes. I think my record might be 12 seconds. Dip foot, grit teeth, breathe heavily, cross eyes, swear under breath, remove foot. Wait for the aching to subside and repeat. I spent the better part of last Sunday afternoon giving this performance for my family - and they did think it was pretty funny. After the aching wouldn't subside anymore, I gave up, and finished up the afternoon alternating between heat and not so much heat.
It does seem to have worked, though. After wearing the same, very comfortable shoes every day except Friday last week, I noticed that it no longer hurts to walk. And that the swelling has gone away, along with the bruise just forward of my anklebone. And today, I took the RICE cure to new heights (literallly) - I encased the entire foot and ankle in a tight ski boot and made several runs at over 10,000 feet on a cold day. Okay, so maybe I missed the Rest bit - but I nailed the other three elements. And my foot feels just fine - especially compared with my quads, which are wondering what they did to make me be so mean to them.
Tylenol PM for me tonight, I think. And I'm NOT climbing into a bathtub full of ice water.
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