All Thumbs

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...now, on with the blog!

I've been having a little trouble with one of my feet. The left one seems to have decided it wants to twist the muscles in the sole into a knot. A painful knot, especially since I'm just going to go out and walk on it all day. Now, a couple of years ago, when I was going to physical therapy for one of my feet, I learned a technique for breaking these knots up and allowing the muscles in my feet and legs to relax.

I get a hard ball, not quite a baseball, something with at least a little give to it, more like a lacrosse or field hockey ball, and I stand on it. I roll it a little, using the ball to massage the sole of my foot and my own body weight to provide the pressure for a deep massage. And FYI - it hurts. A lot. But it does get the knotted muscle to relax, and the pain does go away, and the area becomes much easier to stretch and work on without pain, so it's a good thing.

Well, last night I was limping a bit due to the pain in the sole of my foot, and Handsome asked me about it. I explained what was going on with my foot, and he offered to try to break the knot up for me. I figured 'what the heck, it might feel good to have him poking around my foot some, kind of like a little massage.' So I said sure, and when story time rolled around before bed I grabbed his book and he grabbed my foot.

Now here's the thing. Somewhere along the way my little boy appears to have studied some old-fashioned kung-fu, like you'd see in 70's martial arts movies, like "The Five Deadly Venoms", or "Spiritual Kung-Fu". Specifically, he's mastered the Iron Thumbs technique. I didn't get a lot of reading done as I writhed about in pain while he repeatedly found the knot and stabbed it unmercifully with his unyielding thumbs.

It was okay with him that I wasn't reading to him, since he wouldn't have been able to hear me anyway, what with the maniacal laughter he was shelling out every time he managed to hurt me even more than he had before. He kept at it until his arms were tired from holding on to me and providing all the pressure, and until I had no more tears to shed. Once I'd cried myself dry he let me go and I actually did read to him for a little bit.

Now here's the kicker: he actually managed to break up the knot in my foot to the point that today I was able to walk all day without pain. So this evening I volunteered for another 'treatment'. It went better this time, since so much work had been done on it the night before. It's like having my own 120 lb athletic trainer!

My boy's got magic hands. With iron thumbs.

Ouch?

Talk to you later!