Woohoo, I’m back on two feet again, literally and figuratively. Or so it would seem. The follow-up X-ray taken on Tuesday showed that the fracture in the 5th metatarsal on my right foot has fully healed and stats on my blog seem to be booming (at least by comparison as shown in the image above). Time to build on this momentum.
Whoa, there girl. Don’t you think that it would be a smart idea to go slow and watch your step? You wouldn’t want a repeat of the incident that knocked you off your feet (virtual and real life), to begin with. Fine, whatever.
In my previous two posts, I shared that I’d fractured my foot (and dislocated my shoulder) and the mobility challenges I’ve faced in the last six weeks. But, I haven’t yet made public the root cause of my lost battle with gravity or what led to my recent absence from blogging. I put the blame on stats, as in statistics. Whether it be the stats reported to me by my fitness tracker or the stats related to my blog, I tend to get a little caught up in them.
I’ll get to the story about my blogging sabbatical eventually, but for now, let’s talk about my minor fitness tracker obsession. It’s a little-known fact that fitness kills. Sure, the headline stories are typically about some extreme athlete participating in a high-risk sport or exerting themselves in a high-intensity activity. But what about the little people who are just trying to meet their daily hourly activity goals? Since sitting is the new smoking, I have my fitness tracker set to prompt me to take at least 250 steps every hour from 9am to 9pm.
Despite any good intentions, the graph above of the six weeks prior to my accident shows that I can be a bit inconsistent when it comes to getting my target goal of 10,000 steps a day. And so on the day of said lost battle with gravity, I was dutifully attempting to meet one of the daily hourly goals and thought to do so by trotting up and down the alley behind our townhouse. I stepped out of our unit and onto the raised area in the back of the garage with no problem. However, it was three strides later, as I navigated the 4″ step to the main level of the garage, that I somehow stumbled. I cannot recall exactly what happened; I can only report that my right foot rolled which caused me to lose my balance. As I went down, I first landed on my left knee followed by my right elbow. Needless to say, I didn’t get my 250 steps for that hour or any other hour for the next six weeks.
For several days after my accident, I amused (or should I say tormented) myself and did not turn off the hourly activity prompt. At some point, it did stop prompting me. I suppose that this last graph which shows my “steps” while I was wearing a non-weight bearing cast could be used as proof that fitness trackers can inaccurately detect steps when none are truly taken. At least I still got credit for climbing the stairs in my home even if I was propelling myself on my rear with just my left arm and left leg.
The graph below shows my weekly step averages since the start of the year. The differences of the past six weeks are much more apparent on this timeline. By now, you may be wondering why I was still wearing the tracker if I couldn’t walk. My tracker is also my watch and it reports on my sleep patterns, so I continued to wear it mostly out of habit.
There had been no certainty that I would be back on my feet once the cast was removed. The X-ray might have shown that the fracture had not yet healed but fortunately, that wasn’t the case. I was giddy to hear that the bone had mended. The ortho PA was also very pleased to see how much range of motion and the level of strength I have with my injured shoulder. Once I’ve completed physical therapy, there should be no permanent or lingering problems with either my foot or my shoulder. YAY! I have a proven track record of being a good healer (I’ve been put to that challenge a few times recently). I’m glad that my streak remains unbroken.
Before I close out on this post, there’s the matter of the recent boom in my blog stats and the odd reason for it that I want to cover. Look again at the feature image for this post and take note of the uptick in views and visitors to my blog on August 8 as compared to previous days. I didn’t publish a post that day, which is one reason that a spike might occur. So I looked closer at my other stats in an attempt to determine what had caused the increases. It wasn’t a one-day occurrence either as the next day’s views were higher than normal too. Reader, I hope that you’re sitting down and aren’t mid-swallow in the sipping your beverage of choice because you’ll be surprised at what I found. You might want to make sure that the kiddos aren’t reading this over your shoulder as well.
There was one blog post that was getting a lot of hits, over 80% of the total for that day. The post was Life’s A Beach – Magnificent 8 Collaboration which is the first one I’d posted in a long. Even so, the level of interest in it seemed odd since it wasn’t my most recent post and it had published about two weeks earlier. I looked further at that day’s stats and found that a huge majority of the hits were referred from a website called castersclub. There’s a dotcom at the end of the URL but I’ve decided not to put a link to the website in this post. If you look at it yourself, you’ll find that it’s a member-only forum for those with an interest in “orthopedic recreational casting” as well as real-life casts. OMG!
Weird I know, but it gets funnier which I’ll get to in a bit. Using an incognito email account, I submitted a member registration request and as I waited for approval, I googled “cast fetish”. Low and behold, I found several sites that offer photos and videos (for a fee) of people (mostly women) wearing a variety of different types of casts both on legs and arms. In the search results, there was also a link to a post on the blog The Truth. The post is from about three years ago and in it, Deborah recounts that as she was recovering from a broken leg, she noticed an unusual number of likes from men that she didn’t know on her IG posts where she showed her cast. In her sleuthing, Deborah found that these men had listed in their profiles their fetishes for women with broken legs and/or casts.
Of course, Deborah was weirded out about knowing that she had attracted this type of attention as was I. Since, I’ve come to understand that the fetish isn’t about the injury or pain (as Deborah reported); the fetish is about the aesthetics of how the person looks wearing the cast and I suppose, fantasies about the immobilization. Even so, I had to know what was being said about me on that website with regard to my cast.
I’ll save you the time of looking back at my Life’s A Beach post and tell you that there’s only one photo where you can truly see my cast and even then, it’s kind of hidden. Reader, if you’re not a blogger then you probably don’t know that blog stats can provide detail regarding the specific web pages that are referring visitors to a blog. It was in that detail that I had another clue as to the referring link to my post. In the URL was the phrase “older-lady-black-slc”. OLDER LADY, BHAHAHAHAHA.
Finally, I got word that my membership to the club was approved. I logged in and found the post captioned “older lady black SLC (which stands for short leg cast). The entirety of the post is a link to my blog post with no other commentary. Hey pal, who are you calling older? At least the post wasn’t labeled “old lady black SLC”. BHAHAHAHA I’m curious to see if the photo of my cast in the process of being sawn off will garner any untoward attention.
Just so you know, I didn’t look at any other post or join any of forums at the club site. I just wanted to see what was in the post that was referring traffic to my blog. It seemed harmless so I’ve taken no action. Nor am I laying any judgment on the people who participate in all that the club has to offer. We all have our preferences and as long as it’s not illegal, you do you and I’ll do me. That’s how this older lady rolls.
So there you have it. A tale of how statistics can mess with you and may not be all that they seem to be. Nevertheless, my momentum is moving forward. After the cast was removed, I opted to wear a walking boot for a couple of days because my ankle felt a little shaky after six weeks of inactivity. There is still some swelling in my foot and some soreness but I’m seeing improvement every day. It’s wonderful to be up and about again. The photo above is from the first day with the boot and the photo at the end of the post with me back in regular shoes was taken on Friday. You’ll see more of these daily outfits on Monday in my next Last Week This Week post.
One last thing, please do hop over to Deborah’s blog, The Truth, which I only discovered because of my searching for information about what I shared earlier. She has a wonderful writing style and a lovely family that I hope you’ll find as appealing and interesting as I have.
Let’s connect! Subscribe, tweet, follow, friend, love, pin … all options are available and waiting for you. I look forward to hearing from you.
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20 Comments
Whaaaaa, oh my! Never thought something like that existed! But I am happy for you that the cast has removed! Can t wait to see your ,,normale,, posts again!
Nancy, I guess that there’s something for everyone and sometimes you just never know what makes a person tick.
Wow! What a story!
And there’s more. I’ll share next time we see each other.
Fascinating info about stats!and thanks for the chuckle this morning! Love those shoes of yours, too. Glad you’re up and about!
Paula, I’m glad you enjoyed the post and could laugh along with me.
OMG, Rena! I am dying laughing over here! I have seen some pretty weird searches that have led to my blog, too. But I never investigated. Perhaps I should…because that certainly makes for some seriously entertaining blog content! You go and rock on with your older lady self! I have some investigating of my own to do now! Thanks for sharing this story and giving me a much needed laugh!
P.S. I am so glad everything has healed properly and you are cast-free!
Shelbee
http://www.shelbeeontheedge.com
Shelbee, it sure was an eye opener for me as I figured out the source of my increased traffic. And I’m still getting hits from that site. On the bright side, it was a good distraction from temporary incapacities.
Oh the things people fetishize! Congratulations on getting the cast off! Now you no longer have to deal with the discomfort of it OR the cast festishizers! Although…your stats may prefer you still wore the cast. 😂😜😳
I’m so glad you’re back, Rena, and back to two shoe-clad feet. (They’re cute shoes, too!) Keep on healing.
Hugs,
Sherry
Sherry, thanks for the warm welcome to my return. I am very happy to have the cast off even if it means a return to lower stats, lol.
Congrats on wearing two shoes (cute, too). And OMG, we’ll never live long enough to know about all the fetishes that come to life on the internets. And “Older lady” my ass! xox
-Patti
http://notdeadyetstyle.com
Patti, thanks and I’m still chuckling about “older lady”. It has been enjoyable getting reacquainted with my right shoes, although, my choices are limited because my foot is still a bit swollen. Such is life.
That’s quite funny, Rena…..You are such a Nancy Drew. I’m not sure I would have continued the search to find out the why??
I’m so glad you’re without cast. As fun as it was having it on (said with sarcasm), I’m sure you’re missing it so much!!
XOXO
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
Jodie, I’ve been know to get a bit “CSI” in my research on various topics. I too am glad to be cast free and I’m still marveling at the feeling of walking on both feet.
Glad your back on your feet…and back to your computer!
Thank you. It’s good to be back and having these creative juices flowing again.
I’m not easily shocked…but a cast fetish??? That’s very odd! I love how you took it in good humour though! Whatever floats your boat!
Emma xxx
http://www.style-splash.com
Emma, quite the shocker, huh? And you’re so clever, I wish I’d thought to say “whatever floats your boat “.
YIKES!! There’s something wonderfully liberating in the potentially bizarre nature of being human.
“If you decide to ferret out the realities of being human you are responsible for making peace with what you uncover.” I’ve known you long enough to know that you have a curious but empathetic nature. You also have a wonderful sense of humor.:-):-):-)
I really love the way you, do you, Rena. I miss you!
It is nice to know that you are able to get back up after the accident occurred. It’s like the perception of life, you may suffer but you won’t quit. I would need to read your posts in a daily basis just to find extra inspiration.
StyleSprinter Blog by Katya Bychkova