My right ankle has been swollen and feels like I’m stepping on a bruise for about a week and a half.

It happened right after I upped the exercise last Wednesday. I decided to run to the gym, about 30 minutes, then do some HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), then some weights, then lunch with Adam, then run back home. My ankles felt sore, but I didn’t think much about it. These new Vibram Five Finger shoes often stretch my muscles in new ways. I assumed it was just that.

But I tried running again when my Mom got in on Friday and I was in pain. Especially when I started HIIT. But I still thought it would go away. Must have bruised my foot, I thought.

But it’s still here a week later. Still swollen, still limping.

Adam grilled me on my injury. “Is it a sharp pain or a dull pain?”

“I don’t know, what is the difference?”

This was followed by a lengthy discourse about the difference between sharp and dull pains. Finally I picked dull.

He proceeded to pepper me with questions until he finally fell silent. After what I thought was him exercising his brain, he turned to me and said, “I don’t know. I’m not a doctor.”

Neither am I, but nowadays everything is on the web, right?

I did some research. Most likely not a bruise, but a stress fracture.

You know what they do with that? They put you in a boot.