9 years, thousands of dollars, and not one doctor had ever told me that.
Then he reached for 3 small jars.
He ground the first into a paste while he talked.
Horse chestnut, he said, to firm the weak walls back up.
Then arnica, to quiet the angry, aching feeling. And calendula, to coax the color back into it.
The smell was sharp and green and strange.
He warmed the balm between his palms and pressed it into my legs with his thumbs, slowly, always upward, ankle to knee.
It was the first time in years anyone had touched my legs like they were worth saving.
He handed me the jar and told me to do exactly that, myself, twice a day.