Hurdles Already

*sighs* Well it's time to test my commitment. Friday night I starting walking. I walked with my neighbour for an hour and half. It was a great walk. We went all over Beaumont. Up hills. Down Hills. Through the park. Around the lake. And back home. I've decided Yukon (my 2.5 yr old Husky) will be my walking mate. I've never walked Yukon consistently, so he is not leash trained. He pulls and tugs, goes way to fast and generally is a work out himself. This should be interesting. But it was fun.

Saturday I didn't walk...for some reason I cannot seem to remember. I think it was a lightening storm.

Last night it was pouring rain and lightening too. But my bigger obstacle is my foot. Yesterday morning I woke up with my left heel in excruciating pain! It wouldn't subside. I could not for the life of me figure out what the problem was. I soaked it in my foot bath with some Epsom salt. I massaged it. I elevated it. I took Advil. Nothing worked. The storm ended around 8pm and I decided I needed to suck it up and walk. At least try and if I had to turn back, so be it.

I did pretty good. I pretty much walked the course from Friday night. I left out the lake though. Which probably would have been an added hour. So I only walked a mile last night. But most of it was limping. I foot was hurting quite a bit. Not as much as it had all day, but still enough to cut the walk short.

At first I thought maybe with walking the Friday night, and then walking around on the hardwood floors without slippers had attributed to the foot problem. But then waking up this more with both feet slightly hurting and itching, it hit me.

As much as I have been fighting it, as much as I refused to believe it would happen to me, the inevitable has happened. I think I have arthritis in my feet.

My feet have been feeling weird in the mornings for quite some time now. Some days I am fine, and some days I am not. I never really put much thought to it. But as some of you know, arthritis runs in my family. My grandmother (my world) was diagnosed with it when she was a teenager, and it ate at her body until it final shut it down 3 years ago. My mother was diagnosed as well a few years back. I have always said that I would not let it get me. I felt pretty strong that it wouldn't...until today.

It's a good thing that I have vowed to get rid of this extra weight on me. I know that weight can affect arthritis. The next step is to see a doctor and get a diagnosis (whatever it may be). This scares me to death! The pictures of my grandmothers arthritic ridden body laid up in her bed or barely walking down the hall, haunt me. It is NO way to live! I refuse to be a burden to my husband and children. Having them take care of my every need until I wither away and die. It just can't happen!

Today is not a good day! Today is going to be a very hard day! I need to be strong today.