broken :-( And eclipse! :-)
Aug. 16th, 2017 06:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaIn case you're wondering why I haven't been posting, it's because I'm not doing anything worthy of posting about. Yeah, I had great plans after the Kendall Mountain Run, but maybe I shouldn't have posted, at the end of my race report:
But then, about half a mile from home, the groin soreness returned, and it just built and built to the point that I was very happy to get home when I did. It felt better almost as soon as I stopped running, so that afternoon when I needed to get my CSA vegetables, a half-mile walk, I didn't even think of it, I just walked there. But on the way home, it started hurting again, to the point that on the last uphill I had to stop several times to let the pain recede. That's when I knew something was wrong.
I consulted Dr. Google and all my running friends, and tentatively narrowed it to a femoral neck stress fracture (the top of the thigh bone) or a torn labrum (the membrane connecting the thigh bone to the hip bone). Or just a strain, which would be better by Saturday so I could go backpacking! Except every time I walked more than ten minutes, it started hurting. So I opted out of the hike (with the proviso that maybe if things got better I would join them on day 5, where our group would be crossing a road and stopping to pick up provisions left in our van), and made a doctor's appointment for the following Tuesday. The doctor (actually a PA, which was the only way I could get an appointment so soon) agreed with my tentative diagnoses, got an X-ray which showed nothing, and recommended me for an MRI. Needless to say I did not join the hike. (It rained the whole time anyway, evidence that the world felt sorry for me for missing it!) Instead I asked on Facebook if anyone had crutches they didn't need, and got a free pair, and started taking off as much weight as possible so as to allow whatever it was to heal.
My insurance company gave the OK on Friday, so I called to get the MRI and was able to get in on Tuesday morning, one week after seeing the PA. I got my results Wednesday afternoon: stress fracture of the inferior pubic ramus, which is the loopy bone marked "pubis" on this image. (I don't have image copies of my actual MRI but I hope to get them.)
So, my summer is pretty much wrecked, as I can't walk for very far, or run at all. The PA told me I didn't need crutches as long as I mostly stayed off my feet, but that I could use a single crutch to decrease the weight on my right hip, which is what I'm doing most of the time. I can ride a stationary bike (and do - we have a stationary recumbent in our basement), and swim with a pull-buoy or pool run, which I've done a few times, except that with spectacularly bad timing, our rec center pool is closed for maintenance during the second half of August, and the nearest other community pool, half an hour away, is also closed.
My big concern is our week-long mtb trip, which starts September 19th. I'm hoping that if I am meticulous about not stressing the injury further, and also keep up with the stationary cycling so I don't lose too much fitness, I will be healed enough by then to be able to ride, though I'll have to stick to the dirt-road route rather than the singletrack, I think. The route we're doing is considered easier than the one we did last year, fortunately. I'll be super bummed if I can't do it at all. But I've basically been treating it well for two weeks, and I haven't run for three, and from what I've read the problem with this type of injury is mostly with people who are misdiagnosed (or not diagnosed) and who don't lay off the running for several weeks, making it worse.
Needless to say, the October half is off the table, as is the December marathon.
Anyway, that's why I've been boring lately. :-( But in happier news, we'll be driving our camper van to Wyoming to see the eclipse, heading out this weekend! Originally we were going to combine it with some mtb'ing, but obviously if we do any, I'm just going to ride around on a dirt road as I'm not yet ready to switch to the real bike. This will be my second total eclipse, as I saw the March 1970 eclipse with my family:
Er, I'm the six-year-old moppet wrapped in a blanket. The reason all the telescopes are there is that my father worked for NASA Goddard, and so this was a group of his co-workers and their families, who had all driven to just over the VA-NC line to get to totality.
Now, my legs hurt like you wouldn't believe, though I don't think I actually injured anything, just overused the muscles of my quads and glutes. Hopefully everything will feel good by next Saturday, when we head out into the wilderness for a week of backpacking. Then it will be time to turn my exercise attention to mountain biking in preparation for the Telluride-to-Moab ride in September. But I'll still be running 3-4 days a week, including attending the club track workouts, and hopefully by the time October comes around, I'll be ready to run a decent half marathon, and maybe even sign up for a late fall/early winter marathon.Because in fact I did injure something. I didn't mention it in the write-up, but during the last part of the downhill my groin hurt quite a bit, and I figured I'd strained something. The next two days, my legs were sore enough from DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) that I didn't even try to run, but the groin pain had vanished. On Tuesday I got a migraine, so no running, but on Wednesday I headed out for an easy 4 miles. I could feel the soreness in my legs but it seemed to ease up as I ran.
But then, about half a mile from home, the groin soreness returned, and it just built and built to the point that I was very happy to get home when I did. It felt better almost as soon as I stopped running, so that afternoon when I needed to get my CSA vegetables, a half-mile walk, I didn't even think of it, I just walked there. But on the way home, it started hurting again, to the point that on the last uphill I had to stop several times to let the pain recede. That's when I knew something was wrong.
I consulted Dr. Google and all my running friends, and tentatively narrowed it to a femoral neck stress fracture (the top of the thigh bone) or a torn labrum (the membrane connecting the thigh bone to the hip bone). Or just a strain, which would be better by Saturday so I could go backpacking! Except every time I walked more than ten minutes, it started hurting. So I opted out of the hike (with the proviso that maybe if things got better I would join them on day 5, where our group would be crossing a road and stopping to pick up provisions left in our van), and made a doctor's appointment for the following Tuesday. The doctor (actually a PA, which was the only way I could get an appointment so soon) agreed with my tentative diagnoses, got an X-ray which showed nothing, and recommended me for an MRI. Needless to say I did not join the hike. (It rained the whole time anyway, evidence that the world felt sorry for me for missing it!) Instead I asked on Facebook if anyone had crutches they didn't need, and got a free pair, and started taking off as much weight as possible so as to allow whatever it was to heal.
My insurance company gave the OK on Friday, so I called to get the MRI and was able to get in on Tuesday morning, one week after seeing the PA. I got my results Wednesday afternoon: stress fracture of the inferior pubic ramus, which is the loopy bone marked "pubis" on this image. (I don't have image copies of my actual MRI but I hope to get them.)
So, my summer is pretty much wrecked, as I can't walk for very far, or run at all. The PA told me I didn't need crutches as long as I mostly stayed off my feet, but that I could use a single crutch to decrease the weight on my right hip, which is what I'm doing most of the time. I can ride a stationary bike (and do - we have a stationary recumbent in our basement), and swim with a pull-buoy or pool run, which I've done a few times, except that with spectacularly bad timing, our rec center pool is closed for maintenance during the second half of August, and the nearest other community pool, half an hour away, is also closed.
My big concern is our week-long mtb trip, which starts September 19th. I'm hoping that if I am meticulous about not stressing the injury further, and also keep up with the stationary cycling so I don't lose too much fitness, I will be healed enough by then to be able to ride, though I'll have to stick to the dirt-road route rather than the singletrack, I think. The route we're doing is considered easier than the one we did last year, fortunately. I'll be super bummed if I can't do it at all. But I've basically been treating it well for two weeks, and I haven't run for three, and from what I've read the problem with this type of injury is mostly with people who are misdiagnosed (or not diagnosed) and who don't lay off the running for several weeks, making it worse.
Needless to say, the October half is off the table, as is the December marathon.
Anyway, that's why I've been boring lately. :-( But in happier news, we'll be driving our camper van to Wyoming to see the eclipse, heading out this weekend! Originally we were going to combine it with some mtb'ing, but obviously if we do any, I'm just going to ride around on a dirt road as I'm not yet ready to switch to the real bike. This will be my second total eclipse, as I saw the March 1970 eclipse with my family:
Er, I'm the six-year-old moppet wrapped in a blanket. The reason all the telescopes are there is that my father worked for NASA Goddard, and so this was a group of his co-workers and their families, who had all driven to just over the VA-NC line to get to totality.