Judith Tan writes about being temporarily disabled and the importance of ankles.
IT TOOK a fracture to bring home to me how much we take our feet and ankles for granted.
Yet, they are one of the most hard-working parts of the body. They support our entire body weight, and carry it through 8,000 to 10,000 steps each day.
They are subjected to a rigorous workout, coming into direct contact with whatever ground surface we choose to walk or clamber across.
Do the maths: Imagine carrying your own weight for an estimated 184,000 km in a lifetime. It's no wonder ankles and feet are also one of the most frequently injured areas of the body.
Mr Jasper Tong, a chiropodist at the Singapore General Hospital, once told me that most people don't care much about their feet and ankles until they are injured or forced to do without them.
It's only when the pain does not go away or the foot swells to to look like a big blue marble that they consult a doctor, he added.
How true.
I was an active child and perhaps the repeated minor sprains over the years have left my left ankle vulnerable to injury.
It usually happened while I was running, jumping rope or dancing on heels during school break. I even strained it once while dismounting from a horse.
I sympathised with my colleague, Sumiko Tan, when I read her article in the Sunday Times about suffering an ankle sprain not too long ago.
That brought my childhood memories of injured ankles back to me.
I recall the struggle to walk normally after shuffling painfully and walking with a limp for several weeks.
The treatment regime consisted of cold and hot compresses followed by a visit to the Tuina physician, then located at Zion Road.
The old physician, trusted for generations and who drew the line at touching actual breaks, would massage and manipulate the ligaments back into their original position.
Then came the food advice — no cold drinks or anything sour as they could bring on arthritic-like pain.
There is no scientific basis, no double-blind placebo test to this wisdom, but everyone, particularly older folks, would take heed.
Who was I then, not to follow his instructions?
But one thing was certain both then and now — the determination not to let a weakened ankle stop me from continuimg my normal active life.
But the latest episode of "house arrest" has taught me a few things about myself. The more time I spend at home, the more I realise how much I love being outdoors.
Perhaps this accident, will finally teach me not to take my feet, let alone my ankles, for granted.
Tags:
ankles,
feet,
health,
singapore,
sprain
and how many blogs on this same topic already?!
amanstbasher, totally agree with u. who cares about what injuries a ST reporter is going thru? especially one who is not exactly a celeb. pls write abt something more interesting. besides, wat's so special about a sprained ankle?
One disagrees. Pass up the article only if one has read such stories before. If not then this presents itself as new information which one may make use of to take heed in the future. One may think its useless that such information is retold through the experience of someone else but the recurrence of such information only points to one thing. History repeats itself. :P Or in a more understandable context, as much as science and technology has progressed through the ages, people still suffer from the same ills as of prehistoric man.
Enough is enough. For weeks we have had to endure the aches and pains of the Online Editor. Now Ms Judith Tan has jumped on the wagon.
Ill health and accidents must be a-catching at ST.
Who next?
In times likes this, we need to read joyous and happy things.
Best we pass up reading this paper for a good while. Its depressing.