A couple of weeks ago I developed frostbite on the toes of both feet during one of my longer walks.  I’ve been working hard to take care of my toes properly since that time, and hoping that the feeling will come back in most, if not all of them.

Well a friend of mine is in to Essential Oils and gave me some Helichrysum Italicum to massage into my toes to see if the feeling comes back.  The good news is that my toes – all except for the very tip of my left big toe – have their feeling back, and are functioning as normal.   The problem seems to be that the frostbite created a very thick layer of dead skin around the tips and bottom of my toes that wasn’t really visible – it looked completely normal.  The massaging removed that, and now all is well.

Whew!

I still have to be careful in the future to not allow my feet to get cold, but my new “Post Frostbite Kit” seems to be keeping all the cold away completely.

Today I get to start back in to my full training program again.  This is a happy lady!

Darlene

Ok, so it’s a week since my Sunday Frostbite fiasco.  Winter walking will never be the same.

First of all, there seems to be some permanent damage – especially in the fourth toe on my left foot – the one that went gray.    Dead as a doornail, that one.  The rest are tingly at the tips, some are still a little tender, but not bad.  Yesterday I was able to wear my normal shoes without pain, though, so that was great.

Last night I visited some “new” friends – well, I was actually his Gr. 12 prom date, and haven’t seen him since… I found him on Facebook, connected with his brilliant wife – who seems to be my twin separated from me at birth – and she’s into Essential Oils.  Last night while we visited at their lovely country home, Sue offered to massage my feet with some Essential Oils (not many people have offered to massage my feet EVER, let alone after knowing me for fewer than 12 hours…).  This morning my toes felt irritated more than usual, which gives me hope that this oil mix/massage might be waking up some of those dead nerves.  We’ll see what happens over the next few days.

I saw the doctor on Friday and he made it clear that I must now be extremely cautious for the rest of my life as I am now 10x more likely to get frostbite again.  As someone who has freezing feet even at the height of summer, I felt somewhat doomed by that statement, and knew I had to re-think winter walking.

SO…

Today my most-generous-of-all-wonderful-husbands drove me down to Gord’s Running Store to check out some different options.  The problem is that Vibrams strengthen all the foot muscles and allow your feet to work the way they were designed to.  “Normal” running shoes don’t – they support everything to the point that the muscles in your feet atrophy, and no longer work the way they were designed to work.  By switching between the two you end up living in a place where you go from body-builder to wheelchair-bound and back again – at least as far as your feet are concerned.  WAAAAY too much work!

I explained my dilemma to the incredibly helpful saleswoman, and told her I don’t want to spend six weeks during the peak training season re-strengthening my feet when the snow goes and the temperature warms up, and I can be back in my Vibrams.

She directed me to Biom Shoes.  You have to sacrifice your first born to afford them (Simon’s a good kid, he won’t mind…) but they apparently encourage natural motion in your foot and they keep the foot muscles strong. Not everyone believes they achieve that, but my options are limited at this point in time.

Knowing that the real key is keeping my feet warm at all times, I bought the shoe two sizes too big after trying them on with double socks – one very thick hiking sock and a standard fitness sock – and insoles, because I’m also going to be investing in thermal insoles.

While I was there I got two pairs of Injinji Outdoor socks made with micro-fine Merino wool to make sure my toes don’t rub together and get lesions that get infected without me knowing it (when your toes are numb, you don’t know there’s a problem…) and also to keep my feet warm, as Merino wool is “excellent at regulating body temperature, especially when worn against the skin. The wool provides some warmth, without overheating the wearer. It draws moisture (sweat) away from the skin, a phenomenon known as wicking. The fabric is slightly moisture repellent (keratin fibers are hydrophobic at one end and hydrophillic at the other), allowing the user to avoid the feeling of wetness” (according to Wikipedia)  And, of course, I can wear these in cooler Spring/Autumn temperatures in my Vibrams and still keep my tootsies warm.

Finally I got some ice-grips.  A few close calls made me realize that adding a numb head to numb toes would make walking impossible (though I’m sure many of you think the head’s already numb…) so I decided to not take any chances.

And there went the second child – thanks, Tina!  LOL!

So now I have cool gear on my feet to keep the toes toasty, I’m all set to go!   I’m breaking in the new shoes over this weekend, and I’ll do an easy 1 hour on Monday to test them out.

Wish me luck!

Darlene

(PS – who was it who said that walking is a very inexpensive sport?)

(PS – and never fear! I’ll be back in my beloved Vibrams once the temperatures are above 10˚C!)

(PPS – Oh, and just kidding there about exchanging my kids for cool gear.   The kids are here and safe…)

I was so proud of myself for getting out for my 3 hour walk yesterday in spite of the -19°C/-2°F temperatures. I bundled up, set up my technology, and headed down what was actually a beautiful pathway with fresh snow that sparkled in the sun.

As usual, my toes got pretty cold when I started out, but I knew that once I hit training speed, they’d warm up and be fine. Or, so I thought. Yesterday was a “ladder” walk, a kind of Interval walk where you jump around into different heart rate zones, several of which are quite slow. At times my feet felt fine. Other times, my toes were quite cold, but not painfully so.

On the way home, however, I began to feel quite uncomfortable and about 1km from home, when I should have been in HR Zone 2 (HR in the mid-90′s) I just kept it up in HR Zone 5 (HR in the mid 130′s) because my right foot felt numb, and both feet were feeling uncomfortable.

I got home and found a hot meal waiting for me, so I peeled off my shoes and snow gear, and sat down to eat. My feet began to thaw over lunch, but my toes were still numb. After lunch and a cup of tea I finally got my socks off – and realized how wet they were. I looked at my feet and discovered 3 toes were an odd grey-colour, and all my toes were bright red. One was swollen. My feet, however, were very warm.

It was then I realized I had frostbite.

Thankfully it wasn’t really serious frostbite, but I quickly did some research to treat my feet to make sure I didn’t damage them further.

Following instructions to continue to keep them warm and dry, I had a quick, not-too-warm shower, put on clean Injinji socks to keep the toes separated, wrapped those in fuzzy warm socks, and then slipped on my hut booties. Feet were toasty, but as the toes began to heal, the pain started. By dinner time I could no longer walk – it felt like a 200lb someone was standing on my bare toes with work boots on. There was no place to “put” my feet. No place brought release – raised, down, with weight on them, without weight. The only relief came from walking so I walked around the dining room table for about 40 minutes trying to cope with the pain. I have no idea what serious frostbite feels like, but if this is mild, I never want to find out.

Finally at about 6:30 I took some ibuprofen and crawled into bed. It was after 7:00 before I could tolerate covers.

This morning I’m still in quite a bit of pain, but it’s tolerable. I don’t walk too well, but at least it’s not excruciating when I just sit. Toes feel like they’re soaking in “too hot” water.

The real dilemma is, where do I go from here? Looks like new VFF’s won’t be ready before March (!!). I don’t have any shoes to walk in other than my regular day shoes which will get totally wrecked in the snow and salt outside. Do I pay $160 for shoes that will “do me” until the VFF’s are back in stock?  I do have my Sketcher‘s (which I stopped wearing almost right away because they “re-activated” an ankle issue I used to have), but with the lack of feedback from the thick soles and the rocking soles on sheer ice, I’m liable to end up in the hospital with a concussion wearing those.

ARGH.

Well, one thing is for sure – no walking this week! I’m not sure what I’ll do with all that extra time…

Darlene

Still WAY too cold (-11°C /12°F ) , but I went out anyway (she da man!) I’m having trouble getting my Garmin to read my heart rate. It’s given me an average heart rate today of 61bpm. I wish I was in that kind of shape! I think the strap is actually too loose – probably made for a man. I’m going to shorten it, and then try again.

It did “beep” me through my workout, though, and I did an interval workout to get some more of this fat blasted off.   Woohoo.  Toes are still thawing out, but otherwise I’m feeling pretty good.

I thought I’d share what I’m listening to.  Last year I started listening to the Bible while I walked, and this year I’ve decided I want to go much deeper into the scriptures.  Here’s how I’m attempting to do it:

My walk is about an hour each morning. Last year  I set up a listening program based on Prof. Horner’s Bible Reading System. I set up 10 playlists on iTunes based on his ten divisions, and I set up 7 playlists – one for each day of the week. I simply drag and drop a chapter from each of the 10 divisions into the day’s playlist. You get to explore the whole Bible each morning. Kinda cool. This takes about 30 minutes of listening time.  I use “The Word of Promise” dramatized version of the NKJV for the New Testament readings (interesting to listen to the drama – I like this!), and Max McLean’s NIV version for the Old Testament (tends to swing from dull to over-dramatized, but it works.  I don’t have the “Word of Promise” for the OT yet).

I also have a challenge this year to memorize the book of Ephesians using “An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture” by Dr. Andrew Davis.  Once the general Bible readings are over, I then listen to the whole book of Ephesians (I work on the actual memorizing before I go for my walk).  This takes about 15 minutes.

When that’s done I’m working through Dr. J. Vernon McGee‘s verse-by-verse study of the book of Ephesians for whatever verse I’m memorizing that day.  He’s kind of fun to listen to.  I don’t always agree with him, but it’s good to hear what he has to say.  This is anywhere from 5-10 minutes, and usually wraps up my walk.

When I get home, I work through one of  iTunesU’s university classes on Ephesians.  Currently I’m working through a course on Ephesians from Dallas Theological Seminary taught by Prof.  Ron Allen.  I want to get several theological perspectives on the book,so I’m listening to whatever I can find.

I’m also pulling out my Inductive Study Bible and I’m going to work through Ephesians with the Precept upon Precept study guide.

It will take me 7 months approx. to learn Ephesians at 6 verses a week, and I figure by the end of that time I’ll have a pretty solid working knowledge of the book.  I’ve never studied a single book to this extent, so it will be interesting to see how it works.

I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, go take a walk.  Your body will love you for it!

Darlene