Quick Update on the Hipster

I’m writing this outside the LSU Parking Safety Building (wouldn’t you hate to be a parking safety officer? Of all jobs in transportation, that seems one of the least exciting), where in fifteen minutes I’ll be appealing a ticket I got cause I parked in a handicapped space before I had my medical tag. I know. It’s bad. I’m a terrible person.

These guys have become my new best frenemies. Glad to have them so I don’t have to limp around but boy, they are exhausting. If you, like me, have ever thought crutches seemed kind of glamorous (am I alone in this?), let me just tell you right now…they’re not. Bright side: I get a major upper-body workout using them, which is handy since otherwise I’ve just been doing a lot of sitting lately.

The doc yesterday told me my X-rays were normal, which I expected, and referred me to the orthopedist. I see him Friday. The day before, I’m getting a bone scan and the story behind that is pretty amazing, but that’ll have to wait for another post.

I’ve got to crutch in to plead my case to the parking people.

Thanks so much for your prayers!

Femoral Neck Stress Fracture and a Call for Prayer

After a couple of weeks now of very limited mobility and ongoing pain in the ol’ hip bone, I have done some “research” (i.e., scoured the Internet and read a lot of forums) and am 99% sure that what is going on with me is actually a femoral neck stress fracture (FNSF).

 

The implications of this are kind of hard for me to even grasp right now, so I’m taking it one day at a time.

Make that an hour at a time.

I wanted to write and just ask anyone who reads this to please pray for me.  I go back to the doctor tomorrow for results of my X-rays, but FNSFs are notorious for not showing up on X-rays, which means I may need an MRI or bone scan to accurately diagnose the problem.

Thanks so much for all your support and sweetness…and thanks ahead of time for praying.

 

3 Things I Cried About Today

Does running make you happier?  All kinds of bloggers, runners, magazine articles, and even researchers seem to think so.  I’m no expert, but today, I’ve at least felt the converse effect, the tearfulness that seems to hit me when I’m not running.  Strange things make me cry.  And even though it’s only just after lunchtime on a beautiful Friday, I’ve found myself crying three times today already.  Maybe it has to do with the pain I’m in.  Maybe it’s because I’m just a baby.  Or maybe it’s because when I run less, I feel more.

Here are the three.  Prepare yourself.  They’re small.

1. The nurse didn’t care.

The pain in my hip, I am sorry to report, is not better.  I won’t go into it, but suffice it to say, I wound up at LSU’s Student Health Center first thing this morning for triage so I could try to get in to see a doctor (who would hopefully refer me to a specialist, to get X-rays, and maybe for physical therapy).  The nurse, not looking at me as I limped into the room, said, “Alright, what’s wrong with you?”

“I hurt my hip–”

“Birth date?”

I gave it.

“Are you on any medicines?”

“No. I’ve been taking two Advil in the mornings.”

“Birth control?”

“No.”

She looked at me for the first time, peering skeptically over her glasses.  I stood my ground.  I wasn’t lying.

“What’d you do?”

I told her I’d hurt it running.  She asked when the pain had started.  I told her a week before I ran in a marathon and had to drop out because of the–

“Where’s it hurt?”

I showed her.

“And no trauma?”

“Well, no, it just got worse when I was in Boston, trying to run a –”

“And you’re not on birth control?”

That’s when I felt tears. No, lady, I’m not on birth control.  I just have a hurt hip.  That’s ruining my life.  Help me out here.

            2.  I’m saying good-bye.

I am so crazy-excited about the next step in my life, which I’ll write more about later.  But it means that I am leaving some people I love dearly behind.  I was texting with one of them today, my friend Matt who has done so much for me and has been such a true friend to me even when I basically have done nothing for him.  Suddenly, I found myself with full-on tears streaming down my face.  I felt so sad about not seeing him anymore and not being in and out of each others’ lives (even though we don’t really hang out that much as it is).  It’s just hard to say good-bye.   I hate it.  So I cried.

3. This American Life

On my local public radio station, they play last week’s episodes of some shows on the following Friday. Today, I caught a little bit of This American Life in the car.  It was Mike Birbiglia telling a story, first explaining that he didn’t believe in marriage and then describing how he had gotten obsessed with bringing to justice a drunk driver who had hit him and totaled his car.  Then one night, on a date with his girlfriend, he was scribbling on a napkin an idea about his case and how he could prove himself right.  His girlfriend, Jenny, suggests he do that the next morning.  From the transcript, here’s how it plays out:

I say, “This is serious. Which part of this napkin don’t you understand?”

She says, “I don’t know what to tell you Mike because you’re right, but it’s only hurting you. And I’m just so glad that you’re alive, and I think that we should focus on that.”

She only has to say it once, and I dropped the case and I pay for the guy’s car. And a few months later Jenny and I go to City Hall and get married.

I still didn’t believe in the idea of marriage, and I still don’t. But I believe in her–

That’s where I started crying.  The thought of someone else giving up their case, their need to prove something to the world, because of love–it just got to me.  I want to believe in someone like that.  I want someone to believe in me like that.

 

So…there’s my sappiness.  May your Friday and weekend be joyful and full of smiles.  But sometimes I think tears are okay, too, in the midst of all of that.  Tears tell me there’s something in me besides just toughing it out and laughing it off.

Running may make you happier–and I definitely think it makes me happier–but days without it have something to say, too.

What I Do When I Can’t Run

I’m currently perched on a racquetball I found on my officemate’s desk (don’t tell him).  All this sitting the past week has left me with a sore bum and maybe a touch of sciatica or something.  Since I can’t run, and can’t really cross-train, I’ve been spending way too much time researching injury prevention, reading Runner’s World forums, finding new (to me) running blogs, planning future races, looking up dream races, and thinking about how I’m going to ramp back up in training without reinjuring myself.

Also: watching Prison Break.  Michael Scofield, folks.

I’ve decided I really want to get into trail running, possibly starting to run a couple of times a week with a trail running group like this one and eventually training for an ultra (maybe Bandera?).  I have always loved hiking and being in the wilderness, so I think trail running could be the perfect combo for me.  Plus I hear it helps with injury prevention.

Also on my mind has been how to BQ again (qualify for Boston 2013).  I have to do it, if I’m going to, by September 25.  Yikes.  My dad and I have talked about Missoula on July 8.  It looks pretty sweet.  Not sure I’ll be ready.  I’m also planning to do Marine Corps on October 28, which should be a blast and a half.

In the meantime, I literally am just forcing myself to rest.  A lot.  I have my second appointment with Ian tomorrow, and I’m hoping he’s going to show me some exercises and strengthening techniques that will get me off the couch and into more active recovery.  My aunt Lez has also been coaching me about resting and listening to my body and she seems to think I’ll be up and at it again next week.

I sure hope so.  Resting is exhausting.

Active Release Therapy (ART) session

I just got home from a session at FITT with Ian Lusins, a licensed massage therapist who’s travelled all over the country learning soft-tissue massage techniques.  I found him because he is certified in Active Release Therapy, something I’ve seen mentioned a lot in running magazines, by runners on their blogs and tweets, and, most recently, on running injury forums.  So I found Ian, who has a great office inside a physical therapy/personal training/holistic health organization here in Baton Rouge, and went to see him this morning.

He didn’t knead me into oblivion or pop my joints or really do much manipulation at all. He had me lay on my side and hold onto the side of the table and then he pulled my leg back, keeping my knee bent, and twisting slightly.  I could feel it all through my glute and hip flexor.  Then he rubbed massage cream on my thigh and worked upward on my IT band.  To be honest, he kept referring to a lot of muscles and ligaments whose names I can’t remember–he mentioned the TFL a lot and also said that what I described sounded like it could be bursitis.

The main thing I came away with, though (besides getting off the table and not feeling that tightness anymore), was how much more I need to be doing to strengthen my core, glutes and hip flexors.  He had me stand normally, relaxed, and then said I have the “runner’s slump,” which, as he demonstrated, is not an attractive posture, let me tell you right now.  It most highly resembles a Neanderthal.  Tummy pooched forward, chest slightly leaned back, chin jutting out.  He also said that long-distance runners get into a highly-efficient gait–a nice way of saying that we shuffle.  Instead of using the powerful muscles of the glutes and quads, we just shorten our stride and cruise.  This puts stress on the hip flexors and other, smaller muscle groups that aren’t designed for that kind of repetitive movement.

He gave me a few exercises to do and also said to email him so he could send me more.

• Lay on your back, knees bent.  Put your thumb under your spine about where your belly button is, fingers outstretched (this is L3).  Tighten your glutes and lift your belly button toward the ceiling.  Do that 25 times.  When that gets easy, lift one foot off the floor.
• In the same position, keeping spine pressed down, lift one foot, bring knee to chest, then stretch back out, touching your toe to the ground.  Repeat 25 times on each leg.  When that gets easy, stretch your leg out straight and bring higher, then lower to the ground.  When that gets easy, lift both feet at the same time, bring knees in, then stretch out.  This whole time, make sure your spine doesn’t lift from the ground.
• Planks, baby.  Start eating them for breakfast.

Sitting, as I had surmised, is also no bueno for el hip flexors.  He really encouraged me to be more holistic about my fitness, instead of so eye-on-the-prize, eagle-eye, get-out-the-door-and-run.  The body is a temple and, as Ian said, many people don’t appreciate what it can do until they’re left unable to even walk without pain.  My ultimate goal is to be active and healthy until I die, not just to set as many PRs as I can while I’m young.

If you’re in Baton Rouge, make an appointment with Ian.  He was awesome.  If not, and you’re dealing with injury, try to find an ART practitioner.  I’m glad I did.

My dad sent me this picture from the Rock ‘n’ Roll New Orleans Half Marathon last weekend.  I love it and wanted to share!

{3.10.12} Medical Tent: Try This At Home

I ran today.  On a treadmill, being extremely cognizant of my form, in my newest shoes, after about twenty minutes of stretching my hip flexor/piriformis muscle within an inch of their lives and taking two MSM/glucosamine compound vitamins.

It was glorious.  And pain-free.

Afterwards, I was thinking about how I came to a tentative diagnosis of my hip pain.  Typical runner’s methodology, I’d guess.  If you’re a runner, you probably like to do things yourself.  You want to get on the roads, get back, do your thing, thanks.  Doctor visits take up time that could be better spent running. (Or is that just me?)

I had to laugh at myself this morning.  I sort of consulted a doctor.  My breakthrough advice did come from an M.D., promise!  It just so happened that he was a child psychiatrist my mom met in Boston yesterday at a conference she’s attending.  He’s a runner, too, so she told him about my issue.  He suggested it might be my piriformis muscle and could need some extra stretching.  Mom passed this information on to me, along with a highly scientific article.

I then turned to the real authority: Google.  A search on ‘piriformis’ and a second on ‘piriformis pain running’ yielded this Runner’s World article , this Running Times article, some stretching exercise suggestions, as well as the discovery of a Navy SEAL running forum (I didn’t know those guys were human enough to get injured).

Everything I read made sense and seemed to point to the fact that I’d been sitting too much, overpronating, probably overcompensating because of some recent calf pain I’ve had, and skimping on stretching.

I’m not sure I can really give you a rundown of all the stretches I did, but a few were:

• Downward dog: release your heels slowly toward the floor, then, one at a time, release each leg, so all your weight is in the other one and allow it to straighten further into a deeper stretch (good for when you feel like some self-flagellation)
• Deep lunges: let the knee behind you go all the way to the floor and rest there, leaning forward until you feel it deep in your hip flexor (through gritted teeth, just keep telling yourself: “This. Feels. Great.”)
• Opening stretch: one ankle over opposite knee and sit into the air (that creaking noise? My knee.)
• Dynamic flexor stretch: hold on to something, like the hand of a strong man, and swing your leg back and forth as high as it will go (back and forth, back and forth) and then laterally (side to side, side to side) as many times as you can. I made it to 15 on each leg and felt like I’d given it [most of] my best effort.
• Bonus! Hamstring stretch: one foot out in front of you, heel on the ground, toes up, and bend forward (if you’re trying this at the gym, try to pretend you don’t notice that your knee seems frozen at a sharp chicken wing angle. If you pretend hard enough, maybe Lithe Linda over there in a semi-permanent pretzel won’t notice, either).

This is stuff that feels good to me.  Be careful with your precious body, though!  You only get one.

Any ongoing injuries/discomfort out there?  

What’s your stance on stretching before and after you work out?