Just Another Cottage in Blogville

Ouch and on the run

For whatever reason, I've had little appetite today, and I feel a bit sluggish. I did get up and go for a long walk and did a lot of stretching in preparation for running again. Perhaps the sluggishness comes from oversleeping and being outside for about an hour before coming in to an air conditioned house. Perhaps the smaller appetite has something to do with it, too, but I've been feeling nauseous. When cake doesn't look appetizing to Jackie, you know there's something goofy with the system. Not too many complaints, though, because I have some weight to lose that I picked up while working at a newly-opened restaurant.

On the plus side, finally, in six more days I am allowed to run! In the past four years I have become progressively more interested in working out, and running has to be one of my favorite stress-relievers of all time. Unfortunately, I have been perpetually inflicted with overuse injuries, mainly shin splints (aka medial tibial stress syndrome) which are extremely painful but subside after a few days' rest. However, this time I pushed the overuse pain too far. A handful of girls and I went to the Jersey Shore in May, and while running on the beach in my bare feet (stupid stupid stupid) an excruciating pain shot up my left leg beyond any pain I'd previously had, including knots and charley horses. I could hardly walk, and used my best friend's heated rice pack at night. The pain of the shin splints surged upward til I was concerned my tibiae were fractured. One of the differences between shin splints and stress fractures is that the inflammation of the former encompasses the entire tibia, whereas a fracture is in a specific location. There was definitely a point where the pain was worst: right in the middle of the bone. I'd had a knot before, which comes loose with rest, heat and massages, and could feel one behind the bone, which didn't help at all.

Shortly after I came home, I went to a tennis practice where one of the adults helping happened to be a physical therapist. I was preparing to go for a run -- yes, I am crazy enough to keep running in that much pain, hence shin splints and overuse injuries -- and, for whatever reason, I decided to ask her what she thought of the pain: shin splints or fractures? She pulled me over to the side and took a look at my left leg, which was much worse than the right, and asked me a few questions about the pain before squeezing my calf muscle all the way down till I jumped in pain, literally. "You have a nice knot there," she said. "It feels like it could be your Achilles tendon. Please, please call your physician."

Until I thought I would be in a cast for six months, I did not realize how active I was: running, tennis, ballet, jazz, and on my feet for hours at a time at work. Wow.

I know sometimes medical professionals insist on seeing physicians for all sorts of obscure reasons, but I took her seriously and told my mother, who scheduled an appointment a few days later. I saw my family doctor who referred me to an orthopaedic specialist across town who spent his residency in Florida working with a dance company for sports injuries. He had me balance, turn around, stand on my toes, and after a few minutes said simply, "It isn't your Achilles tendon. You tore your calf muscle and have a big knot. I'll refer you to a physical therapist. It'll be an annoying injury, lasting about six to eight weeks." He told me about a baseball player who had the same injury -- and it recurred. Fabulous. When I asked him was I was allowed to do, he replied, "Anything you want except running. I don't want you running yet. You can do anything, but stop when it hurts."

I had no idea what he meant by an "annoying" injury until I dealt with it for a few weeks. No running, no stress relief, no weight loss. I had a hard time with tennis, dancing, and pretty well anything I did on a regular basis. At least no cast and no surgery were involved. Physical therapy has been working wonders; I never would have expected what I previously considered expensive "stretching" to make such a difference, but it has. My PT has been slowly pulling out the hard mass of torn muscle and repeating an ultrasound deep-heating massage. She spent seven years studying this stuff, and knows the exact locations to put pressure on and pull all over my leg to undo the twisted fibers. I have excercises I do at home every night, and now I have to do more stretching than other runners, which is fine, just so I can RUN.

Maybe running again will bring more energy back into my body. For now I'm just doing the prep work and lots of stretching.