pain, pain, go away!

I finally got a referral to an orthopedic doctor to look at my knee. It’s been bothering me since the end of April, and really hampering my training for Disney.

The good news: x-rays look awesome, nothing structurally wrong with the knee, no arthritis

The bad news: it’s unclear exactly what IS wrong. It could be ITBS or it could be a tear in the meniscus, which is what my primary care doctor thought it was.

Outcome: physical therapy, stretch 5x/week, ice after stretching or running, and come back if it gets worse or doesn’t get better.

I’m not super happy about this.  Granted, it hasn’t been excruciatingly painful since May, and I’m able to run.  However, I do feel limited by it and anxious.  If I go outside for a long run, will I be able to make it home?  In May, I went less than .5 miles outside before calling my husband to pick me up because it hurt so much I didn’t even want to try walking home, even though it was such a short distance.

The bright side is that I completed a 7.3 race pace / long run yesterday!  The downside is that I wanted it to make it 7.5 but I was worried about knee pain.  🙁  It was just at that point where I knew more running would trigger pain.  .2 miles didn’t seem worth the risk!

P.S. I’ll have some more book reviews coming soon, and an update on the June diet extravaganza.  Just teaser — I tried a juice fast and survived!

P.P.S. You’ll notice the sidebar (over there —> if you’re on the main page)  now contains some count downs to my next races.  I’ll be adding more races soon I hope!

 

being injured sucks!

It’s been a month now, and my knee still hurts.  🙁

At this point, I can run for about 30 minutes at an easy pace, and it’s ok, but anything more than that, and it gets really painful. I do have to ice it immediately after, or even walking will hurt. I’ve been taking ibuprofen and trying to keep it easy on the high impact exercises. I only ran 14 miles in May, compared to my monthly usual of 30-40 miles.

It’s probably ITBS based on my self diagnosis. I’ve done some IT band stretches (I should do them every day, but I’m averaging something like 2x week), and that hasn’t seemed to help much.  It is better than it was when it started a month ago, but it’s certainly not healed.

My doctor told me it was a “meniscus strain” and that I should take ibuprofen for 3 days (normally 7, but I had already been taking it). Oh, and come back and see someone in ortho if I have more symptoms of meniscus issues. Um… but I don’t have ANY symptoms of a meniscus issue, and LOTS and LOTS of symptoms of ITBS.  (See here:  http://saveyourself.ca/articles/diagnose-runners-knee.php)

Going to see a podiatrist on Tuesday. Great guy, he did my foot surgery in 2008 when I broke my talus bone and needed 3 screws. I think I need orthotics for running, but we’ll see what he says. He might have some ideas about the knee or can at least get me into see ortho quicker.

As much as I have to drag myself out of bed or out the door to go running, I really do enjoy it and I’m really sick of being prevented from running! The only good news is that I’ve been trying to make up for it by doing more yoga.  🙂