the blizzard morning: standing on one foot to reach the ankle
I had been ordered by deLint and Barry Loach to stand on the left foot for fifteen minutes a day as therapy for the ankle. The countless little adjustments necessary to balance on one foot worked muscles and ligaments in the ankle that were therapeutically unreachable any other way.
Context
The chronic ankle gets its prescribed maintenance, and it's pure body-as-machine engineering: Hal is "ordered by deLint and Barry Loach to stand on the left foot for fifteen minutes a day," because "the countless little adjustments necessary to balance on one foot" reach "muscles and ligaments... therapeutically unreachable any other way." Rehab is designed like a drill — a specific loading protocol to service a specific failing part. The regimen has a fix for the injury it caused, and the fix is one more thing the body is ordered to do.