Tendon Pull

I went to Hong Kong the other day and ended up with a bandaged foot.

I pulled my tendon.

I didn't know how I even got it in the first place but the flare up the next evening caused me lots of grief throughout the night that I had no choice but to visit the doctor the following morning.

Initially, I thought I got the gout which sent shivers down my spine.

No. More. Beer? Nooooooooo.........

The doctor took all but 2 minutes to refer me to the TCM section of the clinic. Another two minutes with the sinseh and it was determined that I pulled a tendon at top of my foot.

Not. Gout.

Phew.

A slap of the kor yoke (herbal medicinal plaster), bandage and 3 days of medicine (alcohol abstinence!) and I was sent on my way out of the clinic.

3 days without beer. Yes. I can live with that. Yes. My life is not over. Yet.

With that diagnosis, I began to trace the events that day and tried to pinpoint where I sustained that pull.

I left for Hong Kong late that day (I usually set off at 6am to avoid the massive crowd at the immigration checkpoints) as I had to clear a meeting first in the morning. So by the time I got to Hong Kong, it was lunch time already.

My usual modus operandi is to get out early, run my errands and get back across the Ch1nese border before 5pm to avoid the massive traffic jam en-route back. So what normally is a 10-hour leisurely stroll became a 4-hour forced march marathon.

One of the thing about going to Hong Kong is the huge shopping list that I get when friends would ask me to help bring back across the border due to the awesome cheap prices as well as the weaker currency in Hong Kong.

My list for the day runs from iPads to iPhones to a shitload of cosmetics ranging from Dior to Lancome to Estee Lauder..

I was done with all the shopping at about 3pm when I crossed (ok, ok... jaywalked) across Haiphong Road. It was a tiny single lane one-way street which I thought would be easy to get across.

As I was crossing the street, this maniac goods van appeared out of nowhere and in my moment of instinctive response, my reflexes fired up every neurons in my legs as I surged to the other side. With my backpack fully loaded with shopping.

I think it was that the explosive lunge forward that did the damage.

I went back without feeling anything amiss. The top of the foot, the next morning, was a little sore as if there was some kind of bruising, I shrugged if off thinking it was just the shoe tied a tad to tightly throughout the entire day before.

It wasn't until that evening when the inflammation shifted into gear and owwwwww...... what a night of agony!

Fast forward, after three applications of kor yoke and 3 days of medication, I am fine again and able to wear shoes (the swelling finally subsided).

In fact, I am planning to resume my regular running in a couple of days' time.

I finished my last dose of medication last night and so I am heading out this evening.

I am going to get my beer.

- Voxeros