There’s a particular kind of frustration that comes with a recurring injury. It’s not the dramatic injury but just a stubborn, slightly visible foot injury that refuses to fully fade into the background.
You can read this blog about my journey with this injury.
For months I’d been working through it with podiatry appointments, strapping routines, carefully monitoring weight-bearing activities and adapting my movement in ways that felt both tedious and necessary. Slowly, I noticed things improved. The pain settled, my mobility returned and life began to feel normal again.
And with that normality came something even better: balance.
For the first time in a while, work and life felt like they were sitting in a comfortable rhythm. I’d found a pace that worked and my body felt cooperative again. I could move, walk, exercise gently and had stopped thinking about my foot every five minutes.
So this weekend, with the sun out and the air warm, I went for what I thought would be a lovely, simple walk. Nothing dramatic happened. And yet by the end of it, the familiar ache had returned.
That creeping realisation settled in slowly that my foot has flared up again.
My mind started racing with the checklist of podiatrist, adaptive movement, strapping tape and negotiating daily life around a foot that apparently didn’t get the memo that we were finished with this phase.
It’s frustrating, mostly because it took so long to heal the first time. When something lingers for months, you start to believe the recovery itself was the hard part. But also that once you’ve climbed the hill, you’re safely on the other side.
Apparently not.
However, something interesting happens when you’ve already been through a difficult phase once before. The first time around, there’s a lot of uncertainty. You don’t know how bad it will get, how long it will last, or what will actually help. Every decision feels like guesswork and every setback feels like a potential disaster.
This time feels different though. Yes, it’s frustrating and I wish I wasn’t back here. But I’m noticing the fear isn’t as loud as it could be.
I realise that it’s because I know things that I didn’t before. I know how to adapt things to make it more comfortable, how to strap it properly and which activities make it painful. I know, too, that progress can happen even when it feels slow.
The trial and error of before which was so frustrating, are now so useful to me. There are no more unknowns in my recovery. And that’s something we often forget when we face the possibility of going through a challenge again.
Our minds are incredibly good at catastrophizing. When we imagine repeating a difficult experience, we picture the worst moments returning exactly as they were. We remember the pain, the inconvenience and the frustration. Our brains project those feelings forward as if they’re guaranteed to happen again.
But what we don’t often account for is experience. The second time through something rarely looks like the first because now you know where the difficulties are are how to adapt around them so that they’re more manageable the next time.
I now know how to pace myself and when to rest. What once felt overwhelming has become more simple because I’ve done this before.
So yes, the foot is strapped again and I’m dialling back weight-bearing activities for a while. My podiatrist is booked again. But this time I’m focusing less on the frustration and more on the fact that I already have the map.
And maybe that’s a useful reminder beyond foot injuries.
So often we fear revisiting hard situations, whether it’s a health issue, a professional setback, or a life challenge. We remember how difficult they were the first time but what we forget is that the person facing it now isn’t the same one who faced it then.
Now, you have the lessons and lived experience.
And sometimes the very experiences we dread repeating are the ones we’re actually far better equipped to handle than we realise.