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Me Time
Swimming Becomes a Fit Escape for One Mom
By Jenn Director Knudsen
As the bone specialist left the room – imploring me to take up the stationary bike and swimming for fitness – in walked the medical-equipment specialist, armed with a huge, light-gray walking boot cast. She was quite jovial as she tugged up my pant leg, gently fit my right leg into the cast with three wraparound Velcro straps up to my knee and explained how to use what was to be my clompy footwear for the next eight weeks.
That cast was a huge inconvenience. It made navigating stairs and ramps very tricky until I got used to my awkward gait and lopsided hips; the cast raised my right foot about one inch off the ground. And since I'd injured my right ankle – my driving foot – I had to take off the cast every time I got into the car and put it back on at each destination. At the time, I had an infant to cart around and a 2-year-old in preschool. That made for lots of driving; I drew sympathetic looks from other preschool parents and offers to hold the baby so I could chase, awkwardly, after my toddler.
But I couldn't give up my workouts, my "me" time. So I took my orthopedist's advice. I gave swimming a shot.
I don't care if my hair gets wet in the pool or infested with chlorine odor. But I do care that my contact lenses stay in my eyes. For that reason, my pool debut consisted of doing the breaststroke while holding my head above the surface of the water. After a half-hour, neck strain sent me to the showers.
Soon, I invested in a pair of hot-pink goggles and again tried my hand at lap swim. Still, I stuck mainly to the breaststroke; I didn't yet have the stamina to do more than four laps of the crawl stroke in a row without feeling winded and needing to cling to the side to catch my breath.
