Call the pope!

I´m finally on the road again after being grounded for 3 days and have had an amazing day, crossing through mountains again (some with snow still on top!) which are covered in fragrant bushes so everything smells beautiful, and also everyone in this area (I´m in Molinaseca) seems to really love the camino; all along the way are dotted people giving out cakes, biscuits, tea, fruit etc to pilgrims so lalala everything is great.
Unfortunately I´m only able to walk again with the aid of painkillers and anti-inflammatories, (maybe the painkillers are why everything seems so lovely?!) but I´m trying not to dwell on that, I´m just very happy to be walking again!

After leaving Leon with the nuns´blessings and being so sure that surely, I had suffered enough to be a pilgrim, I was determined to ignore the fact that my left leg had started really hurting whenever I had to walk downhill...and also I couldn´t see the bones of my ankle anymore it was kind of assuming a balloon shape...and I sort of couldn´t move my foot up or down...Someone I had met several weeks ago had told me "Tendonitis is the worst injury you can get on the Camino, as the only way it gets better is if you stop walking, and nobody wants to stop walking, so they just ignore the pain until they can´t walk anymore".
So I continued in denial and somewhat in pain for 2 more days...putting anti-inflammatory gel on my burgeoning mutant leg, putting ice packs on it etc...Until I found myself on a short downhill stretch completely unable to take another step, and had to sit down right in the middle of the path. Was there for some time contemplating how I was possibly going to continue on the camino (rolling=tricky with rucksack), and wondering if I could design some sort of double-layered trousers that I could fill with ice to enable me to continue walking.

After a while a Spanish man came past "Are you ok senorita?" Me: "Yes fine, I just can´t walk as my leg hurts, but it´ll be fine in a bit so don´t worry" "Do you normally have one leg bigger than the other?" Me:"Well no..." (is it ever normal to have one leg bigger than the other???) "Can I help you? I feel bad to leave you sitting here" Me: "No honestly I´m fine, you carry on" "Ok...but hang on I give you a number, if you still can´t walk please call this number-you have a mobile?" (writes on paper)...The number was 112- Spanish equivalent of 999! "If you still can´t walk you call this number and they send an ambulance, I think a doctor should look at your leg".

So a little worrying that I looked like I was in need of an ambulance! I did manage to continue for another 28k in complete agony, and by the end of the day at least my legs were the same size...the right one was massive as well! Finally acknowledged that someone was not right and went to a most unsympathetic Spanish doctor who yanked my foot up "dolor aqui?" (pain here?) and down "dolor aqui?" (Me: "Si si si, mucho mucho mucho!") and diagnosed anterior tibial tendonitis. "Ok what can I do, I´ve tried everything, anti-inflammatory gel, ice, ibruprofen, what else can I do?" "Did you rest?" "Well noooo...I´m doing the camino and I´ve got 300k to go" "People on the camino always get this problem and they never listen. You must rest 3days minimum, no trekking, not even shopping, no sightseeing or city-tour, sit with you legs elevated and icepacks on and then maybe you can do the camino."

So established myself in Astorga as the pilgrims hostal´s resident cripple (every village has one!), and spent 3days ridiculously bored...many of you will receive postcards from Astorga! As each day new people on the camino came and went I was massively frustrated by how behind I was getting, and also subjected to everyone´s opinion on the best way to recover from tendonitis...One guy squeezed my arm really hard "does that hurt?" "Err yes" "Ah you have too much fire, the problem is nothing to do with you legs, you need to eat more leeks" (random!), another lady insisted I have a reiki session in front of a whole room of people, and another man said "all you need to do is drink twice as much water and walk half the speed" (ok for a man but in an area where trees and bushes are sparse this sounds like a recipe for disaster to me!).

One woman finally convinced my that the doctors advice was best...she was doing the camino on crutches. At first I thought, how admirable, she obviously has some disability but she´s still doing the camino...however it transpired she wasn´t on crutches before the camino! "Ah yes I have tendonitis too, the doctor also told me the only way to continue was to rest, but I don´t want to rest so I bought crutches and now I continue!". Ok so not wanting to go down the lunatic crutches route...I did the 3days rest...and yesterday managed 20 slow kilometers and for the first time could see the bones of my ankles again! Today 27k, and no need for ice-trousers! It´s a camino miracle! So I´ve rambled on enough again...I will have to save the story of the mental man in the mountain I met today who claimed to be the last of the Templar Knights and the tale of the pilgrim who´s foot went gangrenous underneath a compede...for another time!