Inflamed Bursa

That's what's going on with my foot: I have inflamed bursa.

Today as I was limping through the halls at work I suddenly remembered that our college has sports medicine people to take care of all the athletes. Why not have one of them look at my foot?

I went downstairs in my building (the Rhetoric Department offices are locate in the gym; go figure) and found Debbie, one of the trainers, in one of the Athletic Training rooms. She had a desk in the corner; there were also a couple of examination tables, rolls of tape, cupboards with signs on them (bandages, wraps), a sink, and ice buckets. I felt out of my element: I'm not an athlete.

Or maybe I am.

I introduced myself. "I'm faculty here, and I wondered if you could look at a sports injury I have. I've injured my foot doing Tae Kwon Do."

"Sure. Hop up on the table."

She looked at the injured foot, compared it with the uninjured one, and prodded a bit, "does this hurt?"

It turns out I have inflamed bursa. The heel area has are two of these little fluid-filled pads between tendons and bone, and both of mine on my right foot are inflamed, filled with more fluid than necessary.

"This can happen when you get a lot of . . . um. . . blunt trauma," said Debbie.

Yeah, kicking a pad, is kind of blunt trauma.

She told me that basically all I could do was to wait for the bursa to drain. Since compression can aid this process, she wrapped my foot with an ace bandage, showing me how to do it on my own (tighter near the bottom, looser at the top) to help the fluid move out.

"Would massage help?" Hey, why not? A medically necessary massage might be nice!

"Efflurage or milking massage might help it drain. But it will only help if the leg is at a 45-90 degree angle," she told me, demonstrating how I'd have to hold my leg up, pointing up toward the ceiling. Yeesh.

"And you need to cut back on your activity, especially anything that stretches that tendon."

So I'm walking around now with this ace bandage on (feels good, actually), wondering if I should go to ballet tomorrow. Maybe I should just swim this week. Good thing there's no TKD classes this week until Saturday.