growing old without grace

I just came from the perfect yoga class. I jokingly call this class her "Old Folks Yoga" but I like to relax with it on Fridays. I've attended many of C's classes for years and always like them, but today's class worked every muscle I needed to work and flowed seamlessly for 90 minutes. Then at the end of the relaxation portion I was somewhat startled, leaving me to believe I had dozed off. I thanked her and told her that I wish I'd recorded the class to repeat at home.

Last summer when I flew with the boys to Indy, I injured a thigh muscle. I think we'd already missed our flight and were returning from a trip to a new terminal for the next available flight (which hadn't actually been available) to the original terminal. Point is, I was stressed. We boarded the airport shuttle train and were about the only passengers there. The boys wanted to ride without holding on, and I wanted them to think I was calm. So I laughed and showed them how to put their feet to "train surf". We traveled from A to B together, giggling. But then at B, the train filled up and there wasn't room to play. It was just starting to move when I saw that Bug had let go again and was going to fall onto a woman behind him. I lurched. My thigh muscle didn't. I didn't realize how badly I'd hurt it until that evening when I tried to sit on the floor. No go. And I haven't sat cross-legged since. So, I try to stretch it at Old Folks Yoga a bit at a time. It's coming along, but slowly.

What isn't coming along is my foot. I injured it the day of the lemonade stand in June. A week of pain which improved. Then quit improving. "Things take longer to heal as you age" I was told. I waited. At the three month mark I began to wonder if it was worth a trip to a doctors. I finally decided to get it checked out, on Sister MD's suggestion. They felt it. They X-rayed it. I thought nothing was broken and nothing was broken. I got a name of a podiatrist. She felt it. She mangled it a bit and looked puzzled. She got an ultrasound machine out and said "Ah ha." Now, "Ah ha" is a very good noise to hear from a doctor. I immediately trusted her. I even kept from screaming when she put TWO cortisone shots in my foot with needles that looked to be about four inches long. (I never found the exit wounds, but I'm sure they're there.) I even trusted her when I went back two weeks later (Nov. 5) for TWO MORE cortisone shots. (This time she distracted me by talking politics but the shots still hurt like &%$@ and were sore for about four days after.) Now I'm supposed to go in for YET TWO MORE shots on Tuesday.

There are two pinched nerves in my foot. But the treatment is worse than the previous condition. I can walk. I even hiked around Washington. What I can't do comfortably are are yoga and TV watching. (How 'bout that irony?) I can't stand on one foot. I can't twist my foot. I can't rest my foot on a coffee table. (I also can't bike, but that hasn't come up in months.) I haven't been to my regular yoga class in ages. I miss it. I need it. I think I'm a yoga addict. I'll even undergo these two more shots if she thinks I'll improve. But @*#% those needles are long.