Cathartic Thread For Injured Runners, er support for managing injuries. ;-)
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Awww @elise4270 - sucks that the pain is back and just when you were doing so well with it all! I hope it goes away again soon! I don't think your baby cat hates you, sounds like she is jealous of the time monster cat has been monopolizing you and she is taking it out on you.
How do they fix a labrum tear or do they?
Tell DD to enjoy the posters! Glad she is excited about them but she has to share the pencils with you so you can color too or use them to write or draw in your journal.
She has her own pencils hehe! The awesome pencil set is mine!
Baby cat let me pet her today. Yay!
The labral tear is, uh distracting the femur and tacking/stitching the labrum back. Debriding any loose bits, maybe reshape acetabulum if needed. It a total guess at this point. it may just still be inflmmed and thats causing pain. It may have nothing to do with the labrum at all.
What did you guys to for your dh's birthday?0 -
We ate cake 😁
Actually we went to dinner with his brother and SIL (and then ate cake!). He loves having them back in the States and spending time with them. He didn't want to go do anything in particular other than going out for dinner. He is going to Vegas this week for a week to watch a national bowling tournament. In another life before I knew him he was on his way to be a pro and then life interceded. He did bowl for the Navy though and loves to watch it, now the kids of pro-bowlers he knew are pro-bowlers! I was going to go and when asked if he would mind if I stayed home he was relieved. He was worried about finding a hotel where we could have Hobbes and what would we do while he was at the tournament. I am not a big Vegas fan, um not a fan at all so not really a lot there I would want to do except maybe run. We also heard from our DD and looks like she may be able to come down for a few days in a couple of weeks. Haven't seen her since November!
Hope the tear is just inflammation! The repair sounds... painful... again!
Yay for Baby cat! You know she still loves you! Just had to make sure you knew she was pissed at monster cat 🤣1 -
Week 3.
The last week had been much improved with pain. I am reluctantly replacing narcotics with Tylenol and Advil, with the exception of one before bed and the most needed is one upon waking. The last few nights I’ve tried to wait out the pain that wakes me between 2 and 6 am. That’s just dumb. Worst pain of the day, take something. Dh has finally conceded that I’m not an addict. He works with them, and is in recovery, as most of you know. His ex (one of them, haha), had been dependent on them and had a non healing tibia fracture. So, a little ptsd there for him. I understand. I have a high tolerance for narcotics, so.. I don’t find any pay off other than pain relief and some sleep. Which Tylenol will provide, but it’s too easy to hit that daily maximum dose, and my liver enzymes are on the rise. Which I’ll have retested in a few weeks.
I put 90-95 lbs on the leg yesterday. It’s incredibly stiff today, every little movement is “!!”. I’m tired. I have class tonight and am struggling with any motivation. Perhaps it’ll turn around shortly.
At this point I have no problem driving. My leg is fine, no pain. In and out of the car is another story. I enrolled in a basic life support class this Friday. I forgot I was on crutches. That might be physically awkward. But, I gotta keep busy. I’m ready to get that violin out after I get caught up with class work.
Y’all rock on. Thanks for listening.2 -
W3 D3.
So achey today. I think a 5.5 hour BLS class (cpr) did me in. The class was great , I’m just not ready for floor work.
I have a stitch trying to work out. They are desolvable, but one just pokes through the skin. So if I manage to go swim I’ll make sure to put some liquid skin bandage or some tegaderm on it. Dh helped put a bandage and neon on it last night . Looks better this morning, and I’m not sure there’s any risk of infection, but I want to be careful.
Zero narcotics 36 hours now. I hurt but not bad enough for one, unless I get a nap later. Which is a real possibility. Dh is going to visit a friend so sounds opportune to make the roast and nap til it’s done.
Stay well peeps. Don’t take those two legs for granted, treat them well.0 -
That is great going 36 hours w/o any pain killers @Elise4270! Sounds like things are finally mending a bit. How long before the stitches should be out/gone? I only remember them pulling (ouch!) then itching so bad but I couldn't touch them. Hope you get that nap in!0
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I don't know how long til the sutures desolve. The skin is still puckered where they are intact under the skin, so it may be a bit longer. I remember once i had deep stitches and heard one pop. So odd. yes, they have started to tug in a very odd sensation.0
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Day 5 of wearing the boot. Still the easy part of the process. I've cut calories, and managed to keep my weight stable for these 5 days. Keeping it up will become either routine or increasingly challenging, but I don't want to deal with excess weight in addition to de-conditioning when I start running again.3
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@mobycarp - any chance for some water running to help maintain your conditioning?
*Everything* is less convenient with the boot. I can take it off to drive, but the hassle of taking it off and putting it back on makes me think about where I want to go, how long it will take to get there, and how I need to be careful when I'm not in the boot.
So . . . I canceled my last gym membership years ago, because it was too much hassle to drive and park to exercise. The chances of my finding a gym, signing up for a membership, and actually getting there to deliberately water run for any significant number of sessions are not good.
Been here before. The cardio will come back when the foot will tolerate doing stuff. When I get out of the boot, it will probably be warm enough for some cycling before I'm allowed to do any significant running. But cardio is the least of my worries.0 -
Day 7 in the boot. It's easier to control my appetite now. That's good, because the scale is telling me the residual fast metabolism from marathon training is slowing down a bit, and I cut another 100 calories per day out of my target. Now it's a process of re-learning how to eat at this level.
I found that I can do kettlebell swings while wearing the boot. I was a bit concerned because the boot and my shoe aren't quite the same height, but they were close enough. I may try to do snatches later today or tomorrow. It won't replace the cardio conditioning, but it will help maintain core strength.1 -
@MobyCarp- When I was in a boot for the same injury, my doctor gave me the green light to ride a bike in the boot as long as it didn't cause any pain (of course, you would probably want to clear that with your doctor). Do you have a bicycle? I have a trainer for mine that lifts the back wheel and basically turns it into a stationary bike. You can probably find one used on Craig's list or the very basic ones like mine are less than $200 new.
https://www.cycleops.com/product/cycleops-mag1 -
@lporter229 I have a bike. I wore a boot on the other foot in 2014, and found that riding the bike with the boot on was not practical. I rode the bike in the period when I was out of the boot but not yet allowed to run.
Bike on a trainer is essentially an exercycle, i.e. the most boring form of cardio known to mankind. I doubt I'd be able to do that for more than 20 minutes, mentally. It might be different if I were a dedicated triathlete and trying to maintain cycling conditioning; but I'm not.1 -
@MobyCarp when I was in a cast and wearing a boot a few months ago, I did some of these exercises as my footwear would allow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCDRf7bEFNA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-nTG_3OFWs
There's some good stuff in those videos.
I'm currently down with Achilles tendonitis after last weeks hill repeats and a big long run, which included hill repeats. I'm hoping this is short term downtime. Yesterday I had occasional sharp pain, but today I only have occasional dull pain. Rolling my calf with a massage bar seemed to help.
I have 3.5 weeks to my race so I should be back to running by then if I can be smart about this. My goal for that race was just to finish, so that will remain my goal.
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Today I found the heel inserts I used in 2014. Turns out they're just the right thickness to even out the left shoe I wear now with the boot. Put the other one in my right shoe, and it's less hassle to change between boot (for home) and shoes (for driving and shopping).
It's not hurting to walk in the shoes with inserts, with the left foot wrapped as the podiatrist showed me. But I'm still wearing the boot when I'm home.
This morning I'm up 3 pounds from a week ago. The first one is just water weight from being dehydrated the morning after a long interval run. Three more days, and that's all there was. Then it started catching up to me, in spite of cutting 300 calories per day out of my diet. Cut another 100 yesterday, and another 100 today, for 500 calories per day less than the base when I was marathon training. And of course no calories added for running 5 miles or doing speed work.
Working on remembering/recreating how to eat at this level. It's been a while.0 -
@MobyCarp ugh, hope the gain is just water. Surely you've not over consumed, in the ballpark of, 7,000 calories this last week?
Fortunately, I've not gained like that and I've been down a month now. Also, the month leading up to surgery, I sulked and didn't do much running. I'm only 0.2 pounds from pre-surgery weight, and I'm eating horribly. I do have some muscle atrophy, sure thats going to offset some weight gain. Wish I'd have some fat atrophy.
Week 4 Atrophy update. Dh said its not bad. I think it's probably not going to get any worse than it is.
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Probably haven't overconsumed by 7,000 calories in a week; but 3,500 is not impossible. I don't really know exactly how far I need to cut to maintain at this week's extremely low level of activity. I'll just watch the scale and react at the table.
Good news is this morning, the weight jiggled down by 0.6 lb. I know that's water weight, but it's still encouraging that I'm eating light enough to see a downward fluctuation.
So yeah; when I'm unable to run, my obsession shifts to making the weight trend sideways.3 -
Good news: This morning my weight was down to 0.6 lb. above my goal target. That's really reasonable for as inactive as I've been. I don't think I'll need to cut calories any more than I already have.
Good news/bad news: Saw the podiatrist today. I was hoping to be cleared to walk without a boot at Boston, fearful of being told the boot was necessary. I saw this as a make/break; either I could walk, and go to Boston as a spectator; or I couldn't, and I needed to cancel my hotel for whatever I could save. The verdict: Wear the boot for half days, particularly mornings. Don't take a chance on being fatigued by a long day. Metatarsal is still thin and vulnerable, we're waiting for the exocallus to form. Wear the boot on the plane.
So I dithered. Called my sister, who originally booked to watch me and will now do the BAA 5K. She went over her timelines, looked up the weather. Temperature should be fine. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I should be OK with respect to preciptiation. Marathon Monday, we could get rain. Sigh. No rain, and I'll be okay in the boot. Rain, it could be miserable.
Made the call that I'm going. I think I'd rather salvage the vacation by seeing a Red Sox game on Sunday (that I couldn't afford to go to if I were running the marathon), rather than salvage part of the cost by backing out.
Eating on the road will be a challenge. It always is, but usually I'm running enough to repair it within 2 weeks afterwards. I don't have that fall back this time.2 -
@mobycarp Gald to hear your still able to make the most out of your planned trip. So interesting that your foot, will probably heal in about a third maybe even a fourth of the time it’ll take my femur to heal. Two weeks post op there was no visible healing, only a smattering of “bone dust” from being cut. My macrophages hadn’t even cleared all that mess up. So I took it as the soft callus hadn’t even begun to form.
Other than calorie adjustments, have you changed your nutrition any to accommodate bone healing? I added OJ and calcium chews and some additional calories. But I’m weaning off everything but the chews currently. My weight is stable but I can tell there’s a shift between lean and fat tissue.
Good luck. Fingers crossed for no rain and ease traveling in the boot. May your trip be beautiful.
ETA a ball game and traditional treats sounds awfully enjoyable.0 -
Week 5
Pain is more than manageable. Only slightly grumpy and I if I think i can walk without crutches it illicits cranky pain after about 10 steps. Really happy about that.
I think after my next visit I’ll ask about trying some strengthening exercises. Now I’m just working on mobility and I’m probably 80-90% in both knee and hip joints. My knee worries my slightly. I surely don’t want to wind up with chronic knee pain. I noticed yesterday and the day before my left piriformis (sx #1) was grumpy and I had to remember to stretch that out, seems to have done the trick. Last doc mentioned that might be helped with another surgery. I think if I’m aggressive with self rehab, i can manage it. I think.
Dh said I was getting fat. Wow, really? That’s mean. I’m just getting soft. Weigh is unchanged. Perhaps I’ll eat a cheesecake now. Omg.. I had a dream I was eating puffed Cheetos in front of the baby monster and he was try to get them. Haha! Silly brain!2 -
I think you should tell DH to try not being able to do anything but struggle with crutches for 5 weeks and see if he starts getting fat 🤣
I actually think it is great that you are starting to get more mobility and even able to take a few steps without the crutches!1 -
Tested going without the boot for 3-4 hours today and a couple days ago. It's livable, but I can tell it's not yet time to be out of it full time.
Packed for the Boston trip today, fly out tomorrow. Showers in the forecast, possibly rain all day on race day.
Just have to do the best I can. My current thinking is stay in the boot as much as I can tolerate Friday, Saturday, and Sunday for the possibility that the rain makes the boot totally impractical for race day. And then be very unaggressive when spectating on Monday in the probable rain. 1 -
In theory, I could wrap a plastic bag around the boot and tape it shut on my calf. In practice, I expect the bag would soon tear open and I'd get wet anyway. Historically, I've done better in the rain planning for how to manage being wet than trying to stay dry.1
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Travel day. Normal breakfast at home, lost track of tracking on the road but I think I managed to be reasonable today. Tomorrow will be an excessive food day.
Got over 12K steps in, for the first time since the stress fracture. Getting from Logan Airport to the hotel was a challenge, and getting around the expo was more than I would have liked it to be. But I got my very expensive tech shirt for not running Boston this year. Spent about 2 hours out of the boot, and I'm clearly not yet ready to be out full time.2 -
Week 5 day 6
Yesterday I tried to do the one crutch thing. I have annoying calluses on my hands from chronic crutch use. I can hobble with out crutches, and even though it’s not ideal, it’s worth the sacrifice not having to clip-clop everywhere. Try not carrying anything or being able to open doors for 6 weeks. Inconvenient. But, I think I’m asking for trouble if I continue to retrain my gait to gimp. So, I guess I’ll get back to using the crutches. I have some cycling gloves I can use to avoid calluses. But then it looks like I’m training for a crutch war.
The one crutch also elicited some newer pain, the knee (of course), low back, neck, piriformis (r), and front of hip (l). This also comes with the surprise workout of the out of practice muscle groups, particularly my right peroneus (fibularis) longus and brevis. Patience.
Weight is still not an issue. I feel like I eat all the time and more than presurgery. I’ll probably show a significant gain when I add exercise back. I think in my down time I should just hang out on a beach and watch surfers all day.
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@Elise4270 - I have just the beach for you! Just need to come to So CA!
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Survived Boston as a spectator, didn't gain weight. Spent more time out of the boot than authorized on Monday, due to rain. Didn't want to have a wet boot liner for the trip home. The foot isn't all better, but it's better now than when I left. I'll take the progress.
Still not time to run, but probably time to do some gentle intentional walking, instead of just walking the minimum needed for daily activities of life.1
This discussion has been closed.