It's been a long time. Almost two months. What happened to me? Let's look back (insert Wayne's World flashback sound here...)
Last I left you was shortly before Thanksgiving. But I'm going to back it up a little more. At the beginning of November I was out for my weekly long run. Part of my route involved having to run on some even ground. By uneven, I mean a few inches of level grass before sloping sharply. While I didn't have any acute pain when having to run there, it began to hurt later on. And it would hurt while walking. If I avoiding running, it would get better. If I ran, it wouldn't hurt much while running, but would hurt again afterwards. I ran a 5K on Thanksgiving morning. Again, it didn't hurt while running, but hurt like crazy through the weekend.
Then I had a week break from running by going to Disney World. While I did a lot of walking, I wasn't in any pain.
I went ahead and made an appointment with a sports medicine doctor. I figured they would be better equipped to handle my problem than my regular family practice doctor. I'm really glad I went to the sports medicine doctor. If anyone in the Atlanta area needs a sports medicine doctor, I will be happy to recommend him to you. Instead of nurses who initially see you and take your history, the doctors are paired with a sports trainer. They suspected I could have a stress fracture, so I was sent for an MRI. The MRI showed I had a stress reactive condition, meaning I didn't have a visible stress fracture but had inflammation indicating I could be developing a stress fracture.
So I was put in a walking boot for four weeks and banned from running, biking, and swimming. After being so active for about seven months, it was a change of pace. Given that it was the Christmas season, having to be inactive while eating more than usual was unfortunate.
Fortunately, everything seems on the mend. I was pain-free coming out of the boot. The rehab plan is in effect. I was allowed to ride my bike for 4-5 days first. I got an indoor trainer for my bike. Which was good since it was rainy and/or cold. Then I was allowed to do elliptical work. I'm in that period now. I"m taking advantage of a 7 day pass to a gym to get the elliptical work done. The bonus has been there's a pool at the gym and I've been able to get some swimming practice done. Once I'm done with the elliptical, I'm supposed to make contact with the doctor before I can begin running again.
I'm still planning to run a half marathon at the end of February. I'm not expecting to be able to run the whole distance. My plan is to alternate running and walking. Hopefully, I'll get to start running again this week and I"ll remain pain free. Fingers crossed.
