… The agony of the feet 

Sometime in February I went too far on my feet and set off a cascade of fascia problems from my Achilles to my plantar muscles. It has been a very challenging road to recovery and my feet are still not 100%. 

Our first day of the Camino was especially challenging as the road goes ever upward. Then, it comes down fast right into Roncesvalles at about km 146 on the N-135. You walk a great deal of the Valcarlos that way. Asphalt and switchbacks. My feet wanted to freaking die. Thom and our new Camino friend, Penny (from Sun Valley) took a turn each carrying my pack. Thom carried his own and mine.  As Thom described in an earlier post, the Way challenged our hearts and minds. Km after km destroyed my already damaged feet. As I told Thom, now we can say we did it… I’m never doing that again. Ever. My pain had pain. 

That night, when I took my socks off, the kinesiology tape was coming undone so the next morning I had the Roncesvalles hospitallero nurse replace it before we set out in the morning. She also gave me a  pill for the inflammation and for the pain. After that, she wrote what I needed and how often to take it. 2km down the road I stopped into a farmacia and filled the prescription. I honestly can’t tell you if it worked that day because we were walking in the rain over mud and rock which took me forever to get 1km to the next. The last 2km into Zubiri was nuts. It was the worst goat path I think I’ve ever descended. In the rain. 
We got the last two beds at the albuergue that Thom stayed at last time. There we met Juliana and her family from Milano. I got to speak Italian again. I even made a joke. Then we had a horrible pilgrim meal and hobbled off to bed. The next morning at 3am when my body decided it was Loo time I braced myself for the agony that did not come. My foot was healed or at least I don’t feel that particular pain anymore. Such is the miracle of Santiago.