Positive news from the doctor’s visit, odds are what’s going on with my ankle is just tendonitis.  Without going for the MRI there wasn’t a way to rule out something more serious for certain but he thought it extremely unlikely it was something more serious given that I’ve had no problems lately with the mileage I’m doing and so he didn’t require the MRI and gave me the go ahead to keep training. I’ll continue going for physical therapy and icing it at home.

Speaking of icing, I am not very crafty but decided to make a DIY gel pack since we had nothing at home I could use to ice it.  I knew that normally the recommendation is to do a mixture of rubbing alcohol and water, but I had no rubbing alcohol in the house. Turns out some other things you can make gel packs from include: vodka, dish soap, cooking oil (not sugar free, the DIY recipes say sugar free won’t work).  I had no vodka and wasn’t willing to use up the dish soap so I went with cooking oil. I can’t remember the type I used unfortunately.  I lined a mason jar with a Ziploc so I wouldn’t make a mess and poured the cooking oil in, got all the air out, sealed the bag and left it in the freezer overnight. By the next day I had an ice pack very similar in texture and consistency to the gel ones at the stores. It molded well to my ankle, though it did begin to melt rapidly after about fifteen minutes. I only have to ice around ten minutes a day, I think if you had to ice more than twenty minutes the oil ice pack might not work for you.  I was pretty proud of how it came out.  I may have found my Christmas gifts, I could stick labels on these bags that say “From the kitchen of Michelle” and emphasize that if you don’t think you will ever need an ice pack you could also cook using my gift. You are welcome friends.