Chafing is something I never really gave much thought to as an athlete. Chafing is something I have never really gave much thought to as a non-athlete either. UNTIL this weekend, when I discovered that if the chafing is ignored long enough, it will cause you plenty of woes!!
Let me explain…but before I do, I need to give you some back story to make this a full effect story.
This past week was one of those weeks we all have occasionally, but really never really imagine could happen to you and your family. My ten year old son was in week three (of eight) in his black belt training for American Karate. Black belt training at our studio is intense; 7 hours of in studio training with at least 7 hours of mental and physical training, at home, weekly. He was plugging along, like the athlete that he is and progressing very well. I was watching my little boy turn into a man before my eyes! I have the privilege of homeschooling him and because Wednesdays are our only day off from karate, we got to go to our weekly park day. We go and have a great afternoon of fun, laughter and lots of running around (for him)! I sit at the picnic tables and chat with my friends!!
This past Wednesday was unlike any other day at the park, with the exception of reminding him to “please be safe, don’t jump of the equipment”! Any other time…go for it but now was not the time for risk taking! High priority is on staying healthy and whole for these 8 weeks!! Fast forward 3 hours later and I see him “go down” and by “go down” all I saw was my son laying on the ground!! I didn’t think much about it at first. They were playing tag and chasing each other. I thought he had just been tagged. BUT, a crowd of kids gathered around and everyone kind of “froze”. He wasn’t moving, and he was curled up on the ground, holding his leg!! My initial thoughts are not to be written in print but I am sure you can just imagine! $&%&*&(*&*)*)&*&%$#%@%&
I went over to where he was still laying and helped him to standing position. A dear friend of ours saw the whole thing happen (she’s also a doctor) and she walked over with me. His ankle was already swelling!!! Again with the ##&(&****&&**&*&&*!! This was such bad timing for a simple accident to happen!! She took a quick look at the ankle and said it could be a sprain or it could be a break, but bottom line he needed to stay off of it. We immediately left the park and came home to rest, ice, compress and elevate it! (RICE, ya know) It continued to be swollen and very sore to put pressure on it. Thursday we took him to the doctor and then got x-rays. Fortunately, it’s not broken. Unfortunately, it is sprained with possible torn ligaments. Either way….no karate for a couple of weeks. That knocks him out of black belt training for this session! He will pick it back up in January, but it was a huge disappointment for all of us. (I just have to give kudos to my son. After the initial disappointment and tantrums and tears, he’s really proven to me that he is growing up. He’s accepted that sh*t happens and has moved on!!) I am proud of him!!
All of this back story to get to my part of the story. As you can imagine, my week was a bit more disrupted than normal. Friday afternoon after running around all over town, going to the doctor again, dropping by the karate studio to talk to the instructors and getting things situated so he can stay off his foot over the weekend, I did laundry and was quickly trying to fold and put everything away before the weekend of training walks! You see, this weekend was my biggest training weekend before the Susan G. Komen 3-Day. We were walking our 18/15 this weekend; 18 miles on Saturday and 15 miles on Sunday! No biggie, I was ready except for a few details to deal with at home — like laundry!! As I was folding laundry I saw some black threads in the pile of laundry. I didn’t think much about it though, because some of my husband’s pants are old and seem to be falling apart!! I pulled the thread out of the laundry and kept folding! I quickly put all the laundry away and started getting all my clothes ready for my training walk Saturday morning! I put my favorite shorts clothes out in a nice pile on top of the chest in the closet and got ready to get up at dark-o’thirty Saturday morning. Saturday morning after managing to get less than 4 hours of sleep, I grabbed my clothes and get dressed in the mostly dark bathroom. As I am rushing out the door with my stuff, I think to myself my shorts felt a bit strange but was in a hurry and kept going!!
I met my friend, and we drove to our starting place for the walk! All the while, I am thinking to myself, my shorts feel strange….but am too tired, sleep-deprived, stressed, whatever to think about the fact that maybe, I should see if there is an issue with my shorts!! We start walking and at about mile 2 1/2 (of 18+) I realize that I have NO INNER THIGH SEAM!! OMG!! I’m starting to chafe something awful, but stubborn as I am I continue walking! The loop we were walking was our 9 mile, out and back (meaning we don’t go back to the cars for 9+ miles) and I didn’t even have a car with me! Instead of crying UNCLE and stopping I kept walking…..and walking….and walking…and walking!! When we stopped at 4 1/2 miles for a quick bathroom break, I realize that BOTH inner thigh seams are gone!! (Remember that thread I pulled out of the laundry…..um, yeah! I found where the threads belong!!) Instead of stopping there, I wrapped a bandana around my leg and tried to hold it in place and continued walking!!
I’m going to pause in my story here for a minute and let you ponder that: I’ve got no inner thigh seams and I’m walking (with my thighs rubbing together; yep, I’ve got lots of chub-rub) for over 9 miles! All the while, I’m trying to hold a bandana in place….and walk. I’m sure I was a site to behold (I guess I’m lucky that no one took a picture!)
So, let’s pick back up….Once we arrive back at the cars I ask my friend if I could please borrow her car to run to Kohl’s to get new pants! She generously handed over the keys! I quickly drove to Kohl’s and picked out a few pair of pants that I thought would fit. Fortunately, it’s not even 8:30 a.m. and the store was basically empty except employees who are wondering why in the world would this crazy woman be searching frantically for a pair of pants, so early in the morning! I put on a pair of pants that fit and looked decent (but, if I’m being honest I didn’t care except for the fact that they were going to cover my thighs properly)! I was hoping I could just leave them on, but they had the electronic tag thing on them that could only be removed at the cash register, so I had to take them off, pay for them, put them back on and throw the old shorts in the trash!!
Unfortunately, by the time I got back to start walking again, my legs were already raw! If I had been smart (um, didn’t I already say something along these lines earlier in my story?) I would have just stopped and not continued to walk, but I kept walking another 9+ miles! By the time the day was over I had walked over 19 miles (over 48,000 steps). By the time I arrived at home and undressed, my inner thighs were raw to the point of purple! I showered and attempted to find something to wear so we could go to dinner. I put on a dress that I could slip some compression shorts on underneath and ate dinner. After dinner, I undressed and discovered that my legs were bright red/purple and had absolutely no skin left on them! I have two nice big patches of raw, exposed skin on my inner thighs! And my husband keeps asking how could you have walked when your legs are so raw….ADRENALINE will carry you a long way, baby!
Needless, to say I didn’t get up and walk my 15 mile training walk on Sunday morning! I was barely able to put clothing on Sunday morning to go get some medicine and gauze to wrap my poor pathetic inner thighs!! Since Saturday night, I haven’t been able to do much of anything that requires movement! (I haven’t even hit 5,000 steps, since Saturday) I am soaking my inner thighs in coconut oil, Desitin, and Boudreaux’s Butt Paste! I’m a true site to behold as I sit in my bedroom, on my bed with towels covering the bed (to keep the concoctions from ruining the sheets) with my legs exposed to the air to try to heal them as fast as possible! I also have a 10 year old son that has a jacked up foot, so I need to be helping him do things, too!! I have places to go, things to do, and training walks to continue walking, not to mention it hurts like h*** and I want to heal quickly!
I tell you the woes of my family to let you know that sometimes life doesn’t go as we expect but we have to find a way to fight back the best we can! We can’t give up and say screw everything. We have to do what we can to continue on with life! My son, although disappointed that he can’t test for his black belt in November, is enjoying some down time playing video games and getting to sit around with his foot elevated! I’m hurting, and getting to take some down time to watch Hulu/Netflix/Facebook/read, but I know I will recover this week (and I learned that if something seems off CHECK things out and find out why) and bounce back for lower mileage training walks this coming weekend. We all have lessons to learn as we go through life, sometimes some of them are just tougher to deal with!!
Do you have a lesson you have learned the hard way you would like to share? Do you have any confessions this week? Leave us a comment!! We love to read comments from our readers!!
xoxoxoxo,
Ann
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