Fever Blister

There is a somewhat cliché line about getting older that goes something like this: the older we get, it’s not the “day of” that gets harder; it’s the “day after.” I’ve echoed this before, and I believe it to be true. When I play pickup basketball or in our touch football league, I don’t think I’ve lost much physically (maybe half a step) from when I was eighteen, but the following day is a different story. As an eighteen year old, I could go hard for a couple hours one day, and then come back the next day and do the exact same thing. As an almost twenty-six year old, if I go hard for a couple hours one day, it’s just about out of the question to do anything at all the next day, and I might be moving pretty slow the day after that as well. It just takes longer to recover, plain and simple. And that goes for not only muscle recovery, but recovery of my little nagging injuries as well. I’ve been used to lacing up ankle braces, strapping on knee braces, and nursing nagging hamstring and groin injuries for awhile now. One of the things that I still haven’t gotten completely accustomed to is this achilles tendonitis, which I guess is just never going to go away for as long as I do anything that involves moving my body, but even that I have learned to deal with. One thing that is hard to stomach is what I will call “equipment induced injuries.” This past Christmas, I bought Krissy a new pair of basketball hightops. They were the white, black, and red CP3 III’s made by Jordan brand. I got them at the Nike Outlet near our apartment, so to say I got a good deal was an understatement. Anyway, they gave Krissy some blisters as she was breaking them in the first few weeks, but by all accounts she loved them, and so I eventually bought the same shoe in black, white, and blue. They were actually marked down even more when I bought them – $37 to be exact – so I thought I got even more of a steal.



The first couple of times I wore the shoes, I loved them. They are sharp-looking, they are light, and they were comfortable. I say “were” because the third or fourth time I wore them while playing ball my right heel was in so much pain that I almost felt like sitting out. I guess they still need to be broken in, but what’s weird is that I had no such pain the first few times I wore them. It’s a strange kind of pain also…it feels like a bad blister or burn, but neither Krissy nor I can see anything on my heel with the naked eye. And I feel like it has to be from the shoes because when I wear other sneakers the pain isn’t there. (It does hurt a little bit when I’m wearing dress shoes for work now, but that’s it.) Krissy suggested that the blister might be a result of the way the padding is designed in the heel, but I only have the “blister” on the one foot. Also, I went to the closet to pull out an old pair of Melo’s (also Jordan brand), which happen to have the same heel padding as these CP3’s, and I never had any kind of blister or anything from wearing them…so, what the hell?!? In effect, I have some kind of “blister mystery” here. I think Krissy may have thought I was losing it this past Sunday because after we got home from basketball I messed with the shoes for a good hour or so trying to feel for anything in the heel of the shoe that might have caused it. Anyway, I don’t have a great solution other than just trying to let the “blister thingy” heal and further break in the new sneakers, otherwise it’s going to be out with the new and in with the old…because I’m not getting another pair of sneakers right now, $37 or not.