Thursday was the day for ART, though we didn't spend much time on my knee. I had him look at my left foot, and talked about what it's been feeling like. He poked and prodded and applied pressure in various places and asked me to describe the pain. There are a few spots that are actively painful when pressed even fairly lightly, though I didn't scream, and lots of spots where I feel varying degrees of discomfort.
There is a spectrum between a perfectly healthy bone, and one that has a stress fracture. Some of the bones in my feet appear to be closer to the fractured end of the spectrum, but not there yet. At the moment there is no telling what it would take to push that bone over the edge, and I don't want to find out. There are several people that have described the pain involved, and what they had to go through for recovery, so I'm quite happy to take their word for it, thank you very much.
On the 19th I'm going for a bone scan, and that should give me the skinny on what is going on in my foot. Until then, I'm not going to run at all. While it didn't hurt to run, there was some ache involved, and it's easily the highest impact thing I do. I will also be careful when doing flip turns.
It turns out that the pad under my foot bones has shifted towards my toes a bit, which is a common thing to happen to runners. I found that mildly amusing, since by my runner buddy standards, I barely run at all. If I should start real running, that pad will probably migrate down my toes and over top.
Saturday I was a slacker. I hung out at the house, puttered around a bit, and ended up watching 3 movies. Second Hand Lions, Four Weddings and Funeral, and Repo Man (the original). On Friday I watched Prizzi's Honor, and got a real kick out of it again. One of the things I really enjoy about contemporary movies is the things that are taken for granted. Dial telephones, and pay phones. Smoking (ack, choke). Photographs taken by a photographer and developed in a studio. Cars and home furnishings. Even the mechanics of the movie itself. I'm thinking of the pacing, at the moment. By today's standards, Prizzi's Honor is very slow. There are lots of scenes that would be cut out to speed it up.
Today I was up and got on my bike reasonably briskly. I was disappointed to find that my old Cube computer set up beside my bike doesn't want to play Sanctuary Season 2. It was happy enough with Season 1, so I'm a bit surprised. I might need to fuss with it a bit, but didn't want to before the ride.
I went through a couple of TED talks while riding. Borders and contemporary history. Interesting. Easy warm up. Then 1 hour fairly steady low to mid zone 3, with some standing, some faster spinning, and spin technique focus. Cool down. All in all it was 1.75 hours, and felt pretty good. Stretched after.
Soon JL will be here to give me a massage. I confidently expect to be a bit of a puddle for the rest of the day.
Sorry to hear about your left foot, and even sorrier that you won't be able to run for a while. Who's gonna motivate me to run in sub -20 deg C temps by running in it as well?? ;)
ReplyDeleteHope all goes well with your bone scan and that it's not too serious.
Yikes...a stress fracture (or almost one?). I had one of those a couple years ago...ouch. You're right, it was the smallest of bone-chips. The doctor didn't even see it on the initial x-ray and it wasn't until he prodded my foot (and I almost hit him because it hurt so much) that he took a second look. Luckily (?) I only had to stop running for 6 weeks. You're smart. I wish I'd stopped sooner when it was just an occasional pain, not until that last run when I couldn't even walk any more...GAH!
ReplyDeleteIn fact, the Dr did not say "don't run". That's me saying it, mainly because I'm a weenie about pain. However I am planning to get out for some brisk walks between now and then. And not in the +15. Hope that's enough motivation for you. Too many people walk too slow in the +15. You'd think they had all day or something.
ReplyDeleteI hope I've caught it really early, and that strictly speaking I don't HAVE to stop running, or that by the time I get the scan, the rest has done me good. I discovered the pain when doing some yoga. The one where you roll your toes under your foot and stretch out the top of your foot. The right was fine and I nearly shrieked doing the left. That's when I started paying attention to it.
ReplyDeleteI hope I've caught it really early, and that strictly speaking I don't HAVE to stop running, or that by the time I get the scan, the rest has done me good. I discovered the pain when doing some yoga. The one where you roll your toes under your foot and stretch out the top of your foot. The right was fine and I nearly shrieked doing the left. That's when I started paying attention to it.
ReplyDeleteHere's hoping you get some good news on the 19th. Keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteSo, I knocked one of those plates off center, and it ended up twisting sideways. Felt like I was stepping on something sharp. My massage therapist friend twisted it back into place, realigned it, and then showed me how to give myself a foot massage. Apparently, my growing calves pulled some tendon or another, which in turn pulled something else, resulting in my foot bones getting crooked. Who knew?
ReplyDeleteSounds scary, though. I am a HUGE baby about injury. The last time I tried to run through something, my knee hurt for half a year.
That's some kind of weird shit. I thought our bodies were better domesticated than that, and it shouldn't go injuring itself. Foot massage is amazing. I thought that reflexology was bull, till my massage therapist proved it worked. Feet can be so sensitive.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a good plan to stay off the foot. Good timing with the brisk temps expected this week.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't hurt at all to walk or bike. Even running isn't painful. But, as you know, I *like* running when it's brisk out.
ReplyDeleteIn all fairness, can you really say you were "running" before?! Just kidding! ;) A stress fracture us no good. I've never had one but I've heard, so, there....
ReplyDeleteI'm not much of a runner, it's true. At least not compared to certain blonde runners that think 30 or 40 miles a week is the off season.
ReplyDeleteI am so proud of you for listening to your body Keith! Hopefully the rest will heal you up and the pain will be no more. I ignored my body's signals and I regret it!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I am proud of you for being proud of me, and we celebrate our mutual proudness with a proud celebration to share the proudness. (Stolen from Donald Westlake) In one sense I hope the bone scan shows nothing, and that it's all in my head, but then I'd have to confront my being a weenie. But if the scan shows a problem, then I have to deal with that, which probably means doing something I don't want to so, or not doing something I do want to do.
ReplyDeleteThe clinic gives me the results on disc. Any luck I can keep a copy. Or get my ART guy to send me some screen shots when we review them. Just like I posted a shot of the X-ray of my broken elbow, and the one of my broken teeth that did respectably in the gnarliest injury contest that Steve in a Speedo ran, I will for sure post this. Thanks for the good wishes.
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