Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Sidelined!

As much as it pains me to write this, I have been forced to take a (hopefully) temporary break from training.  I had a great time during last week's monumental run to Union Station, but about three hours later I could no longer bend my left ankle.  It was fine during the run, during the metro ride back home, during the 5 walk block back to the car, during the ride back to my house... It appears to be some soft tissue problem on the outside and underneath the ankle.  I don't think it's a sprain though it does seem weird for an overuse injury to come on so suddenly with no prior symptoms.  I figured it was just sore and would go away with a day or two of rest but it hasn't.  It's better, certainly, but not good enough.

I saw my doctor last Friday, she's nice but not particularly helpful.  She poked and prodded, when I indicated the most painful area and asked her what was even in there to be injured since it's a weird spot she actually said "I don't know."  Gee, thanks.  Prescription was for more rest, ice, occasional compression and stay off it for another week.  I'm pretty sure I could physically run through the pain but mentally I know that's just a really bad idea so I'm following orders and staying off it as much as possible.  I can walk, albeit slowly and pathetically, as long as I don't bend my ankle and put all the weight on my heel.  This is of course causing both of my feet, as well as my back, to hurt as well, and the more I walk the more everything hurts.  I've been avoiding walks to the office cafeteria to get water (because it's too far and because I want to avoid walking to the bathroom) and for lunch (because I want to avoid people asking about it).  I've Googled like mad and haven't been able to diagnose it myself (though I feel like I have found some likely culprits) so I have an appointment with a podiatrist for this Friday.  Hopefully he'll have not only the solution to the problem but a plan for keeping it from coming back.  I will be at the starting line on October 31st, hopefully better and stronger than before.  This isn't discouraging me from completing my training, don't let it discourage you from donating to AICR!

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