Breaking Toe Update

Get it? Breaking toe update? I crack myself up.

So, Tuesday morning I did not teach, I slept in, I elevated, I iced. I even took (regular! plain! for the knocked-up chicks!) Tylenol. The toe feels MUCH better. Didn't do much of anything this day except for go to the doctor and get a sexy new shoe. I also determined that I can drive (yay!) And the PA I saw convinced me that I really have to baby this toe to get it to heal in time for our trip to France and Scotland. Time will be short. I'm going to get some acupuncture and use some comfrey and arnica to speed healing.

This morning I taught, sitting in a chair, with my foot up on a ballet bar at the back of the room. At one point I caught sight of myself in the mirror (I almost NEVER do this because I am afraid I will start giggling--on a normal day, I mean) and I looked like the peg-leg pirate with my leg up and my bottle of grog. (Grog being the water in my Klean Kanteen.)

This afternoon I decided at 3:50 I'd go to the 4:00 Gentle Hatha yoga class at YogaLife. I hadn't practiced yoga in five days and particularly since the toe has limited my movement, the rest of the body is closing in like vultures... Now that studio is close to my house, but not that close. Especially when you can't hurry. This injury is actually the *perfect* teaching for me in three key ways:

1. I literally can't hurry on foot. I will have to PLAN to be on time and walk at a normal (or limpy) pace. As it was I scooted in after the teacher had started going around the room asking for intros/aches and pains

2. I have to ask for help. (I thought of this when I got up from the floor of the studio to fetch my props and a woman jumped up after me and kindly got them for me.) I am TERRIBLE at asking for help. Because if I ask for help, someone will point their giant finger at me and say YOU WHINY LITTLE WEAKLING!!! They will, you see. The same "they" who are all going to laugh at you. So, obviously I need some work THERE.

3. I can't push myself. The PA said if the toe is in pain, it's delaying healing.

The class was good. I was surprised at how much I could do without flexing my wee toe! Actually, my SI joint on the left side hurt MUCH more than my toe, and my toe just hurt at random times when I was trying to move here and there, not in the poses. I left my sexy shoe on during the class, of course. I was trying to get into a squatting pose, and the SI joint was just radiating pain, and I was grimacing.

"Amazing what a little toe can do," said the teacher, noticing my visible discomfort.
"Actually it's my SI joint," I grunted.
"Oh, well if you're really in pain, don't do this pose."

Um. Duh. Yeah. I'm a yoga teacher, supposedly. HOW many times have I told my students "you should not be in pain in yoga!" Do you THINK maybe I could heed my own advice? (See above, issue #3 where I have to push myself, but GEEZ!)