Hi Fellow Pilgrims,
So amazingly, the past 2 years of planning for my first Camino have gone extraordinarily quickly & the time has come to jump on a plane tomorrow morning at 6am, bound for the
Camino Frances. I start walking with 2 friends on Thursday & instead of being excited, I'm absolutely terrified & it feels awfully unfair.
Unfortunately for me, in the past week I've developed an awful pain in my right inner ankle that seems to be radiating up into my shin. The pain is dull, it aches & I’m wondering if maybe it could be shin splints? The first 3 days I wrote it off as a niggle, the day after the pain increased tenfold, I got scared & made a flurry of appointments to try & have it seen to. Sadly time has run out, I haven't been able to have it scanned & all I've achieved has been an appointment with a podiatrist & a sports massage therapist to no avail of my pain. I've tried everything; I've spent hours icing it, keeping it elevated, resting it, taking prescription anti-inflammatories, pain killers... all the while, trying not to cry while I have visions of my first Camino being over before it even starts.
I'm 35, I've never had ankle issues before & there was nothing that's happened that should have caused me to be in pain. I can still walk without limping, it doesn't hurt to walk per say, but the more I use it, the more the ache increases throughout my lower leg & remains. It's definitely an ache rather than a sharp pain & I have absolutely no idea how it's going to react next week when I start walking. I've just never had anything like this before & it's awful.
I know I have options on the Camino in terms of luggage transfer etc, but I'm guessing that if it doesn't improve once I get to Pamplona then I'm going to be left to make a really difficult decision. I've used all my annual leave at work to do this, flights are booked, people are relying on me & the Camino is my dream; the thought of not being able to walk it makes me feel physically sick.
I know there's nothing anyone can do for me at this point, time is going to tell and my leg is going to do, what it's going to do. I've kept reminding myself what a difference a week makes, but after a week & with the pain only increasing, it's starting to feel like empty hope. I suppose I just need to vent because the burden of it with leaving tomorrow feels so overwhelming
A sad pilgrim
E
xx