A Pink Pixie Princess - Complete!

[DopeyBadger]

Wishing you a healthy recovery!

 

[emilyindisney]

Oh no! I can understand that deciding not to race/go to Disney must be feel devastating. Hoping you feel better soon and wishing you a speedy recovery!

 

[pxefig]

Oh my goodness, Shannon, I am so sorry. And it's okay to be upset. Just because there is always some way things could be worse doesn't negate your right to feel disappointed that they aren't what you want them to be. You said one of your big fears was that it would be permanent. It's not, and you are making the smart decision to not push and run through an injury. That's the kind of stuff that will turn short term pain into chronic injury and you are putting your long term health ahead of shirt term goals. It's the right decision, but it still sucks.
If it makes you feel any better, you are not alone in the deferment company. I'm probably going to have to defer Tink. Our house took some damage from a freak day after Christmas tornado and when all the insurance deductibles are paid for it will be impossible to justify the trip. I have friends who lost their homes so it's hard to be all wah wah I can't go to Disneyland, but still ...
Keep on with your back exercises. Get healthy. We are all cheering for you!

 

[girliea]

So sorry Shannon! Honestly, when I read that your foot was numb I became very worried for you! So glad that it is not permanent and doesn't require surgery.
I certainly understand about not being in the parks for the race with the injury and how hard it would be emotionally but I am so going to miss your reports and reading about your training--hope that doesn't sound too selfish of me.
Please heal up fast and take care of yourself!

 

[purplekicks]

Hope you feel better and can get back to running soon!

 

[Ariel484]

Sorry to hear that you're deferring, but ... you have to do what's best for you. Take care of yourself, and I look forward to seeing you pop back in once you're able to run comfortably.

Thanks Sarah.

So sorry for everything you are going through. But you really are being mature in that you are giving up something you want for what is best for your health. Dealing with back pain is no fun and if you are able to do something to get rid of it long term you will be better off down the road. The races will always be there. Just being able to focus on your health without stressing out due to a time frame will help immensely.

Thanks...weirdly enough it's not even the back pain that is bothering me, it's the leg pain from the nerve getting pressed on. But yeah, I don't want this to be something that follows me around for the rest of my life. It's getting old.

Deferring definitely has taken away a lot of stress. Each day I would sort of assess how I was feeling and think, "alright, if I feel better tomorrow I could get 4 full weeks in of training. Is that enough? Maybe 3 weeks would be okay?" It was a daily worry that I'm glad isn't there anymore, even if I am disappointed about having to defer.

My thoughts and prayers will be with you whether you are on this board or the run boards or not. You, through your reports and comments, have been a tremendous help to me in my running and I appreciate you.

Thank you so much...that's probably one of the nicest things someone has ever "said" to me here on the boards.

I'm so sorry to hear about your back /disc. I'm glad that it isn't permanent and can be fixed sans surgery. I totally understand staying away from hearing/reading about something you were looking forward to for awhile until the pain wears off a bit. I have done that before.

Me too! I have an MRI scheduled for Friday and a follow-up appointment next week...I'm hoping once my doctor sees my scans he'll continue to think it's not permanent and doesn't need surgery. He seemed pretty confident last week but you never know...

I really enjoy your threads/posts and wish you the best in recovery!

Thank you!

Oh Shannon! I'm so sorry to read this, friend. I was worried something was up when you hadn't posted for a bit.

You were correct!

You are most decidedly making the right decision even if it's a really difficult one to make. I'm relieved for you that this is a temporary setback and that with the right care, rest and exercise, you can expect to fully heal. I know that doesn't really help with the immediate disappointment though. I'll miss this thread and your posts, but again, completely understand why you need to distance yourself for a time. No reason to rub salt in the wound.

You phrased it perfectly - "rub salt in the wound." I fully see myself avoiding social media like the plague during Princess weekend this year. I think once the races are actually done I'll feel better about things...really, I have been feeling a lot better about it over the past few days.

I hope you don't stay away too long. I'll miss "hearing" from you. In the meantime, sending you lots of healing vibes and big hugs and wishes for a speedy recovery.

Thanks friend, I appreciate it!

Sorry to hear about the problems but glad it won't require surgery and you'll be able to run again. Get better soon so we can continue following your rundisney adventures.

Thanks! I'm working hard at my PT exercises and I hope to be up and running again soon.

I came here to ask you if you were part of any ear re-selling pages... but found this instead and I'm so sad for you! I wish you a speedy recovery and all the pixie dust in the world!

I am not part of any ear re-selling pages, though after I overbought at BibbidiBobbidiBrooke's last sale, I have been selling some pairs on Facebook. Thanks for the Pixie Dust!

Oh no! I'm so sorry you have to defer until next year, but I'm very glad you'll be able to heal up and get back to running without surgery. Rest up, recuperate, and we'll see you on the forums again before too long.

Yessir. This whole thing has given me a lot to think about. I definitely will not take my good health, or the ability to run, for granted once this whole thing is over and I'm back out there again!

Wishing you a healthy recovery!

Thanks!

Oh no! I can understand that deciding not to race/go to Disney must be feel devastating. Hoping you feel better soon and wishing you a speedy recovery!

I absolutely was devastated last week (again, I feel like that was a gross overreaction, but that's how I felt) - I am definitely feeling better about things this week. Thanks, Emily!!

Oh my goodness, Shannon, I am so sorry. And it's okay to be upset. Just because there is always some way things could be worse doesn't negate your right to feel disappointed that they aren't what you want them to be.

Thank you so much for saying this! This is something I have been struggling with this week - part of me feels like a spoiled little child, like "wahhh I can't do my Princess races!" It's just disappointing because I was SO looking forward to them...and the Little Mermaid theme was right up my alley! Arrg.

You said one of your big fears was that it would be permanent. It's not, and you are making the smart decision to not push and run through an injury. That's the kind of stuff that will turn short term pain into chronic injury and you are putting your long term health ahead of shirt term goals. It's the right decision, but it still sucks.

Seriously, I don't think I could even run through it at this point if I wanted to. On Saturday I was struggling to take the dog around the block (a little over half a mile) - the pain was too much. I cannot imagine dealing with that for 13.1 miles...even trying to walk a 5K seems unthinkable right now. But yeah...long-term recovery is the goal here, for sure.

If it makes you feel any better, you are not alone in the deferment company. I'm probably going to have to defer Tink. Our house took some damage from a freak day after Christmas tornado and when all the insurance deductibles are paid for it will be impossible to justify the trip. I have friends who lost their homes so it's hard to be all wah wah I can't go to Disneyland, but still ...

Oh no! That's awful, for you and your friends. I'm so sorry that happened. I hope things are looking up for everyone.

I'm preparing myself for the possibility of deferring my PDC entry. I think that would be way less upsetting than deferring GSC. But I'm really hoping to be able to do the 5K with my mom (we both have booked non-refundable flights, so that trip is happening no matter what).

Keep on with your back exercises. Get healthy. We are all cheering for you!

Oh I'm definitely keeping up with those exercises. Today is the first day where I'm supposed to do them here at work (I'm supposed to do them every 2 hours)...so I need to commandeer an empty cubicle or something, and I just KNOW someone is going to walk in on me and be like.... "sooooo whatcha doin'?" Fun times. Thanks for the cheering, I appreciate it!!

So sorry Shannon! Honestly, when I read that your foot was numb I became very worried for you! So glad that it is not permanent and doesn't require surgery.

The numbness freaked me out! Now I guess I am just sort of used to it, but it's still weird. Per my doctor, it can take up to a year to go away (!!!!) but he doesn't think it'll be that long for me.

But a year though?? I mean...what even??!

I certainly understand about not being in the parks for the race with the injury and how hard it would be emotionally but I am so going to miss your reports and reading about your training--hope that doesn't sound too selfish of me.

Well, I still have 2017 races to get ready for... Actually I've been thinking a little about planning for GSC in 2017 already (trying to convince Mr. A to sign up for the 10K!). And I like to blab on way too much to close this thread or anything like that.

Please heal up fast and take care of yourself!

Thank you!!

Hope you feel better and can get back to running soon!

Thanks so much! I hope so too.

 

[ZellyB]

Hoping all looks good on the MRI this Friday!!!

 

[baxter24]

So sorry to hear this. Hope that you heal fast and able to get back to running soon!

 

[IrishMel21]

2017

I apologize in advance for not responding to each of you individually. Honestly, I hate when I take the time to type out a comment on someone's thread and they ignore it, but I just don't have it in me right now.

On Sunday, I woke up and found that my left foot felt numb, like it was asleep - my entire heel around to the outside of my foot had almost no feeling. And I haven't been able to get it to wake up. In addition to that, I've been having more low back pain, bizarre itching sensations in said numb left foot (so it’s either numb, or incredibly itchy), and burning pain down the outside of my leg, from just below my butt, down through my calf. It stops just above my ankle. And the ankle is where the numbness starts. I've had back issues off and on since 8th grade, but I have never, ever had pain or numbness in my legs or feet as a result.

I'm incredibly lucky to have great health insurance, and I was able to see a spine doctor yesterday. It was all good news - what is going on with me is not permanent (my ultimate #1 fear). It is fixable without surgery (another fear). I will be able to run again (fear #3). Long story short, a disc in my back is pressing on the sciatic nerve, which runs from the lower spine, into the butt, then the back of the thigh, all the way down to the foot. Apparently most people have a disc out of place (like 50% of the population, whether you know it or not)...mine just so happens to be pressing on this nerve. So it's not an unusual problem, and it's not something that I can look back at any particular thing and say, "yep, that's when it happened. This is what caused it."

Per my doctor, this is all fixable with certain exercises. Like I said, all good news.

The bad news - I'm deferring my Glass Slipper Challenge entry to 2017. The last few days have been incredibly upsetting - first with not knowing what was going on (maybe it's an overreaction, but waking up with an appendage being almost totally numb seemingly out of nowhere was terrifying), and then finding out a diagnosis and urging my body to heal quickly so that I can get some training runs in. It's too much pressure to put on myself to get over this nerve pain in enough time to start running again, especially after already having taken almost a month off. And if I do heal soon, how enjoyable will the races actually be after so little training?

The doctor told me I could try to run 1-1.5 miles this morning. I was excited! Time to run again! I even wore the outfit I was planning on wearing for the half...good karma and all that.

I couldn't even make it to 0.25 miles. The pain and bizarre itching were just too much. After wrestling with it all day, I submitted the deferral about an hour ago. I know it's the right decision, and I'm hoping I'll feel some relief now that I actually got the confirmation email back and there's no time crunch to get better...but right now knowing that I won't be there for the races next month hasn't gotten any easier.

I'm trying to focus on how lucky I am - this isn't permanent. No surgery. I'll be able to run again. I have good insurance (SUPER lucky since I have to get an MRI next week, and those are pricey) and a definitive diagnosis. I have a guaranteed entry to GSC next year. I can cancel everything without losing much money - I'll get my room deposit back (I can't go to WDW when the races are happening - it'll be too hard to be there when I'm not participating, and who knows if I'll even feel good enough to walk around the parks?) and my flights were on Southwest, so I can get credits for those. All I'm losing are the pins I pre-ordered and my 5K entry fee (since those are not transferable). All of these are good things, but mostly I'm just sad right now.

I'm not sure what to do about the Pixie Dust Challenge yet...at least I have awhile to decide. I'll likely be taking a break from this thread for awhile, and from the runDisney section of the forums...I wish I could be mature enough to stick around and fully participate, but it's hard to read about everyone else running and getting excited for Princess weekend when I can't. Mature? No. But that's how I feel right now.

So that's what's going on with me. Again, thanks for the comments and I'm sorry for not responding to each of you individually.

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this - sending you positive thoughts as you go through your recovery!

 

[steph0808]

Shannon, all I can say is that sucks!!! I know it is frustrating and sucky, but you're going to get better and you're going to run another day!

 

[margitmouse]

You're here!!!!
Yay!! I have been hoping you would be back sooner than later. We need your wisdom, support and cheer. .. And we need to know you're doing ok.

 

[Ariel484]

Hoping all looks good on the MRI this Friday!!!

Same here...I'm nervous!

So sorry to hear this. Hope that you heal fast and able to get back to running soon!

Thanks so much for the kind words.

I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this - sending you positive thoughts as you go through your recovery!

Thanks! I appreciate it.

Shannon, all I can say is that sucks!!! I know it is frustrating and sucky, but you're going to get better and you're going to run another day!

Yep, it does suck. I'm trying to focus less on the suck, but it's not always easy! You're right though, I AM going to get better - that is the main thing to remember!

You're here!!!!
Yay!! I have been hoping you would be back sooner than later. We need your wisdom, support and cheer. .. And we need to know you're doing ok.

Yep...couldn't stay away for too long. Such a nice message from you, thank you so much!!

 

[Ariel484]

Guess who's BACK...BACK again

The title of course referring to the 2002 classic "Without Me" by Eminem...

...get it? BACK? Because of my stupid back?

Anyway...

Before I talk a little* about what has been going on with these back issues of mine, I just wanted to first say THANK YOU. I have been really overwhelmed (in a good way) by the kindness of people here in both the WISH section and in the runDisney section of these boards. I've gotten way more supportive posts and private messages than I expected after writing about deferring my GSC entry, and it has helped my mental and emotional state immensely. So, again...THANK YOU.

*a lot

My last update here was on January 14, just after I had made the decision to defer my Glass Slipper Challenge registration to next year. I'd had an appointment the previous day with a spine doctor who was pretty sure that I had a disc in my back that was not cooperating and was pressing on my sciatic nerve. My chief complaints: numbness and occasional crazy itching in my left foot and burning pain that started in my butt and ran down the outside of my leg, all the way to my upper ankle.

Anatomy lesson time! Here is a "map" of the human spine. My issue is right in between the lumbar and sacral sections...specifically the white portion in between L5 and S1 on the picture below. The white portion is a spinal disc, and apparently mine is...protruding a bit, I guess?

From what I understand, the picture below is almost exactly what is happening. The "butt to foot" map with the shading sure looks correct to me. Disc protrudes or whatever, presses on a nerve (in my case, the sciatic nerve) and produces pain and other side effects. Just like the picture below, I have pain that starts in my butt and goes down my leg. The pain stops just above my ankle, and there, numbness starts that goes down my ankle, along the outside of my foot and into my little toe.

As an aside - when googling around for these pictures, it was hard to find one that wasn't sort of graphic with the way certain parts of the body were illustrated. I even had to doctor this one up in MS Paint a bit. I also found pictures that are apparently from people having spinal surgery...eeeek! Motivation to work really hard at my PT exercises, let me tell you.

Another picture of the sciatic nerve, highlighted in red. Apparently this area of the spine also controls bowel function, and - OVERSHARE!! - I haven’t had any issues in that area, so you know...it could always be worse. Also, this sciatic nerve pain is normally confined to one side of the body (the left side for me), so that's lucky, too. Having it on both sides (I've read about cases where poor people DO have that) would be super awful.

My doctor diagnosed this pretty quickly, without seeing any scans from me or anything like that. When I had my initial appointment, he had me do a few things - walk on my toes, walk on my heels, stand in one spot and rise up on my toes, and then do that again, but this time on each foot separately. I did fine on all of those tests, but I knew I was sunk for the last one - sure enough, I could easily raise up on my right toes, but on my left side it was totally impossible. It was like my brain couldn’t tell my calf/foot what to do, or my calf/foot was too weak to carry out the task...something like that. Apparently that was enough to give him the diagnosis and he said something like "yep, that's the L5 on the S1" or whatever.

As I said in my previous post, he assured me that all of this would clear up - the nerve pain would go away, and so would the numbness, though the numbness has been known to take up to 1 year to clear up completely. And I was just like..."you said what now?!" A year with a numb foot seems pretty insane to me, but he didn't seem to think it would actually take that long in my case (and, I mean...if I had to choose between the burning nerve pain or the numbness, I'll choose the numbness as the thing that will take longer to go away). Part of the exam involved him breaking a wooden q-tip in half (so one side was sort of pointy while the other side still had the soft cotton) and poking at my foot while I had my eyes closed - I was supposed to tell him if he used the pointy side or the cotton-covered side. This went better than I expected - I guess I was 100% correct in saying which side he was using - which told him that the numbness isn't super serious.

He also had me lie back and straighten my left leg. And then he slowly tried to pull it up...PAINFUL, OH SO PAINFUL.

Luckily he said that I could make this all go away with some exercises. His recommendation was to continue on with my usual activities as normal - he even said to try running a little bit (I did the next day and it went poorly - insane leg pain and really weird itching in my numb foot. I had to stop just shy of 0.25 miles) - and he referred me to Physical Therapy. However, he also said that I could save myself the Physical Therapy co-pays and just get a book that details the exercises that he wanted me to do, and he also recommended some specific yoga poses that he thought would help. He told me that driving would be pretty tough (which I'd already figured out ), and that I should try not to sit for very long - more activity would be better for this "injury."

One thing I forgot to mention in my initial post about this was that I didn't come away from this appointment with any kind of medication. Going into it I was hoping for something that would provide some kind of pain relief - when the pain was bad, it would feel like a constant, burning pain going down my leg - but the doctor said the stuff he'd normally recommend for this would make me "bad at spelling and math for awhile" until my brain adjusted. I told Mr. A about that and he thought that the doctor was joking, but nope - he was serious. I think I have mentioned it a couple of times here (by "here" I mean "on DISBoards," not necessarily on this thread), but for my job I do statistical analysis - a lot of logic is involved - so a medication that would make me "bad at math" was really not an option. I had to pass on that. I did try Advil a couple of times, but it didn't really seem to help...so, whatever.

At the time I was still holding out hope that I could be ready for Princess weekend (ah, silly, naive Shannon ) so I decided to try to get the recommended book as quickly as possible and get going with the Physical Therapy on my own. My local library system didn’t have the book, but Amazon did - I ordered it with 1-day shipping (the shipping cost more than the book! No e-version available, sadly).

When the appointment ended, I scheduled an MRI for January 22 (this Friday) and a follow-up with my spine guy for January 26 (1 week from today). I was sent down to the radiology department to get some x-rays, and then I headed back to work. I work in a hospital and my appointment was just across the street from my building. Very easy.

The next morning was my ill-fated run, and that was when I started to get my wake-up call regarding GSC. Later in the day I made my way across the street to get lunch, and had to stop a few times to sit down and collect myself because the burning pain running down my leg was pretty bad. That walk to and from lunch is what made me face reality: how was I going to do GSC - heck, even the 5K? - when I could barely make it across the street just a little over a month out from the races?

Princess weekend wasn't happening for me this year. It was something I’d been thinking about for a couple of days - each morning I'd wake up, sort of try to assess where I was, and frantically wonder if I had enough time to get ready...assuming I'd get better enough to start running again. And then I'd realize that I wasn't feeling better yet...and I'd get sad and upset all over again. Deferring seemed sort of awful, but at the same time, I'd feel a tiny sense of relief when the idea popped into my head. My doctor knew how important the races were to me, and he said something along the lines of...I could start the races but possibly not finish. Not gonna lie, not finishing would be way worse to me than deferring, so that was out of the question - in any race that I have done, I have only showed up to the starting area if I've known 100% for sure that I would finish. Maybe that's why he told me to try the run the day after my appointment - to figure out for myself that I wasn't ready, without him having to tell me. Who knows.

At any rate, I did figure it out and submitted my deferral. So that was then...

Continued in Next Post

 

[Ariel484]

BACK 2 Good

The title of course referring to the 90s classic "BACK 2 Good" by Matchbox 20...yuk yuk yuk.

My last post detailed my "injury" (for lack of a better term) and how it was diagnosed. This post is about what I have and have not been doing since said diagnosis to make this problem go away!

During my appointment my doctor told me that I could continue on with my regular activities as normal, but not to push it if anything got too painful, so I have been allowing that to guide me...

What I have been doing

Physical Therapy Exercises

Right after my appointment I bought a book recommended by my doctor (I couldn't find it at my library, and no e-version exists) - "Treat Your Own Back" by Robin McKenzie. I read about 95% of it, and I have to say it's a little annoying - the author really pats himself on the back (ha!) a lot, and some of it is him trying to get the reader to buy his products - but I've been applying some of the suggestions/methods detailed in the book and I think they are helping.

One of the main takeaways I got from this book was to work on my posture - standing up and sitting up straight. I think that alone has helped me a decent amount.

And here are the exercises. I should note, these were "prescribed" to me and don't work for everyone - only those that have this specific type of back issue.

Exercise #1 is my favorite - lie on the ground for 2-3 minutes. I can do that!
Exercise #2 is a yoga pose - cobra pose. Again, 2-3 minutes.
Exercise #3 is another yoga pose - upward facing dog. Rather than holding this pose, I start lying on my stomach and then push up to what's in the picture. So it's sort of like a push-up...10 of these per session. Hoping I get totally ripped guns from doing these.
Exercise #4 - standing backbend. Again, 10 per session. I HATE these - they make me dizzy, almost to the point of being nauseated. I do more like 1-2 per session, and even that is sort of a stretch for me. Not a fan.
Exercise #5 - lie on on my back and pull my knees to my chest. 10 times per session.

I haven't done Exercise #6 yet...that’s supposed to replace #5 after 1 week, so I'll try to switch to that one on Friday.

So that is the PT routine, and it's supposed to be done 6-8 times per day...once every 2 hours. That seemed like an insane amount of time to devote to PT each day, but hey...gotta do it. And I've found that it actually doesn't take very long to complete. I've been setting an alarm on my phone to remind myself to do the exercises, and I can complete them in 5-10 minutes. It's been interesting doing it at work - there's an empty cubicle next to mine with a door, so I've been sneaking in there and hoping that no one walks in. I can just imagine someone opening the door to find me lying on the ground...and of course yesterday I heard the department secretary talking to someone about possibly moving into that cube. Don't they know that's my private PT space?!

Anyway, I got the book the day after my initial appointment and have been doing the exercises daily since then. I don't always get to them 6-8 times per day, but I'd say I always complete them at least 5 times per day. Yesterday I did do 8 sessions though - gold star for me!

Lumbar Pillow When Driving

Along similar lines of "work on my posture," I've been using a lumbar support pillow (like in the picture below - the little black circle behind her back) when driving. Driving into work was incredibly tough for me last week - my drive is 25-45 minutes depending on traffic (today it was closer to an hour...winter in Ohio, ladies and gentlemen) and I'd experience super awful leg pain - but it has gotten better. This pillow was one thing the author of the book wanted readers to buy, but Mr. A already had 2-3 of them (definite history of back issues in our house ) so he just gave me one of his. I don't exactly love using it - it makes the middle of my back feel tired, probably because my posture isn't super great - but I think it's helping.

Keep Moving

I think this is the biggest thing. One of the best days I had recently was Sunday - I had a lot of errands to run and a lot of things to do around the house, so I was on my feet a lot. By the end of the day my back felt tired, but not painful, and my Garmin had me at a little over 9,000 steps for the day. But the best thing - almost zero leg pain all day. It was a sharp contrast to the previous day, where I mostly sat on my lazy butt and could barely make it around the block with the dog without crying from the pain (less than 3,000 steps per the Garmin for that day). So in my mind, sitting and doing nothing seems to aggravate my issues more than moving around does.

This has been a little challenging for me for a few of reasons: (1) I sit at a desk all day for my job. The Garmin has been helpful for that (it buzzes at me to "MOVE!" after an hour of inactivity). So have the PT exercises every 2 hours. (2) The aforementioned commute - it's not crazy long at all (I used to drive an hour+ - this is way better), but it's still a little tough. And finally... (3) Exercise in the morning. Part of me wonders if that ill-fated run right after my appointment would have gone better later in the day, compared to first thing in the morning. At this point I don't want to change my exercise schedule (coming in early allows me to beat traffic, and I like getting stuff done right at the beginning of the day), so hopefully it'll get better as I heal. Having said that, the soreness seems to be a little worse just after I wake up, so it might be tough for awhile.

Speaking of morning exercising...

Lifting

After experimenting with less lifting (and not really liking it) I was anxious to get back to my 3-day-a-week plan once we came home from California. I remember at one point early on in this thread saying that I was feeling the positive effects of lifting - that I felt healthy and strong - and I want to get back to that feeling! This has mostly been going okay, even with the nerve pain. I have been SUPER careful, paying extra close attention to my form, and started off with little tiny weights for each of my exercises - or, in the case of some exercises, no weights at all. The leg exercises have been the toughest, just because that's where the nerve pain is (I started back with all of my leg exercises using no additional weights). Lunges in particular are still hard for me (but those were pretty tough to being with) and I haven't added weights in for those yet, but I have recently started doing squats with weights. Deadlifts are hard too, just because bending forward with straight legs is INCREDIBLY painful for my leg - I couldn't do them at all the first time I tried, even without holding any weights.

The week of my diagnosis was the first week I started lifting again. The pain was worse then, and it made things pretty hard in the weight room - I had to take breaks 2-3 times when the pain would get to be too much, and I would just lie on the ground with my leg in the air and wait for the burning to die down (not embarrassing at all, she said sarcastically). And I feel a little silly using such light weights, but hey...I gotta do what I gotta do. But I have noticed improvements from last week to this week - yesterday I hit the weight room and didn't have to lie down for breaks at all, so that's progress!

Walking

Started off with walking the dog around the block (0.6 miles for one of the shorter routes). One time was successful, the other two times were awful. This week I decided that I wanted to start walking on the treadmill on days where I'm not lifting...the dog walks are going to die down because it's getting stupid cold here, and when one is walking a beagle, a lot of starting and stopping is involved. So I was curious to see if I could walk for any length of time without stopping for breaks.

Really now, must we stop and smell EVERYTHING??!

Today was my first treadmill walk. I set the treadmill for 10 minutes and started to go...at one point I couldn't resist and turned the speed up to 5.0 MPH (12:00/mile pace) and ran for 1 minute. It wasn't perfect (mostly because I could feel that I was limping...more on that below) but it was light years better than my not-quite-a-quarter-mile run from last week. I ended up going 0.56 miles over my 10-minute treadmill jaunt, and while I did feel a little pain, I was overall pretty encouraged to find that I have definitely improved in a little under a week!

At this point I'm hoping to stick to 3 days of lifting/3 days of walking (with little running bursts) for awhile. I'm thinking I'll add a couple of minutes to each walk and assess from there.

Household Tasks

After weeks of fighting the crud I picked up in California (and then gave to Mr. A...oops) and then this back thing, I've finally been able to resume normal stuff around the house - cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. Just like in the weight room that first week, I had to lay down a few times in the kitchen until the leg pain would go away, but I haven't done that for a couple of days now. Being able to do all of these normal things again has helped my mental state tremendously - I felt pretty useless there for awhile, and I'm sort of a neat freak, so I hated knowing that the house wasn't clean. Never thought I'd be so happy to be able to vacuum again! And I've never been very good at just sitting and doing nothing for long periods of time, so it was driving me nuts.

Limping

One other thing that I have been doing...and it's not a good thing...is limping. I mentioned in the post about my initial doctor's visit that I couldn't raise up on my toes on my left side - like my calf/foot either forgot how to do that, or just isn't capable of it right now. This seems to translate into how I'm walking, and I have been limping since the first day this pain started - initially because it hurt to walk normally, but now, I just can't pick my heel up correctly or something. It's really strange - and something I want to ask about at my follow-up, because I'm wondering if I'll need separate PT for that, or if it'll just correct itself? - and I hate that I'm doing it because when I'm at work I sort of like to keep to myself and keep a low profile (I'm not anti-social, I swear), and I feel like the limp is just screaming, "look at me! I have an issue going on!" Not good.

What I have not been doing

Yoga

I want to get back to doing yoga once per week, but right now I cannot bend forward (standing or sitting) with my leg straight without crazy amounts of pain. I actually was signed up for a class a couple of days after my appointment...got in my car to go there...and ended up going back home. I just wasn't sure I could keep up yet. Hopefully soon, because I feel like once I think I'm ready to go back, it'll really help me!

Running (for the most part)

Obviously. After my one awful attempt at a run, like I said above, I'm mostly sticking to walking for a little while. I'm hoping to get up to walking for 30 minutes, 3 times per week and add in an occasional burst of running like I did this morning, depending on how I feel. I’m sad not to be able to *really* run again yet (though...it's only been a week, so that's not too bad really), but deferring my GSC entry (and knowing that it's a good possibility I'll do the same for Tink weekend - which would upset me way less than the GSC deferral did) has taken away the pressure of feeling like I need to start running again ASAP, for sure. I still really WANT to run, though. Soon enough.




So...overall, as far as where I'm at right now...

Nerve Pain in my leg: Definitely at its worst when I try to straighten my leg and bend forward (standing up or sitting down). Just above my knee on the back of my leg...OUCH! I've always been very flexible, so this has been a weird adjustment for me. But other than that, the pain is MUCH improved from last week. Driving is definitely the toughest thing, but for the most part, it doesn't really both me when I'm walking.

Numbness: Still there...not totally sure if it has improved any? As time has gone on I've sort of gotten used to it, but it's still...unsettling.

Itchiness in my foot: Haven't had this in a few days...WHEW. Such a weird thing to happen, and it drove me insane since it was SO irritating and I couldn't really do anything to relieve it (scratching or anything like that didn't really help)

Back Pain: Almost none. The muscles in my mid-back are a little sore from working on my posture and whatnot, but my lower back (the source of this mess) hasn't really been bothering me

My Mental State: MUCH better. It occurred to me that today would have been 1 month until I left for WDW for Princess weekend, which made me a little sad - and it's been a slight bummer to read about people starting to pack and whatnot - but I know for sure that I made the right decision. The pressure to heal quickly is totally gone and that (along with the fact that I can feel that I'm making progress) has been hugely helpful. I had a couple of dark days in there but I think I'm starting to turn the corner.

And as I mentioned before, I have an MRI scheduled for Friday and a follow-up scheduled one week from today.

One thing I can say for sure - once all of this is behind me, I will never take my good health, or my ability to run, for granted ever again. This is really the first significant health issue I've ever had, and it has made me realize how lucky I have been up until this point. Something to keep in mind going forward, for sure.

Continued in Next Post

 

[ZellyB]

Way to take control and work on a solution. But, I knew you'd be back on top of this in no time. I suspect you'll be fully mended and back on the mean streets before you know it. I'm glad deferring gave you some relief from the mental stress though and now you have a guaranteed entry (and excellent excuse) for doing it next year instead. Small comfort, I know, but hopefully it helps some.

It's funny about PT exercises. I had some major shoulder issues last year (rotator cuff) and my doctor sent me for PT. The exercises all seemed sort of, how do I describe it? Lame. I mean, like walk you fingers up the wall kind of thing. And, I remember thinking, "How is this going to seriously make my shoulder better?" But, after sticking with it for several weeks (and they gradually gave me some more challenging exercises) it really did improve. Ultimately, time was the final thing that fixed me, but I had to grudgingly admit that the PT actually did help. All that said, the costs for going to see the therapist were nuts! So, when I hurt my OTHER shoulder in the same way a few months ago (yeah, I'm just that pathetic) I was able to do those same exercises on my own. So long story short (too late ) I think you made the right choice in just finding a way to do the exercises on your own. And perfect that you have your own little PT space right next door. Just tell that co-worker to back off your space!

I also sit at a desk for the majority of my day and find that it's rough on my back too. Do you use any ergonomic stuff at your desk? I have a lumbar pillow for my office chair and also an angled footrest thingy. I'm not sure how much it helps, but I figure it can't hurt. Glad to see you back and posting!!

 

[dancingtodisney]

HEY!!!

I’m just catching up on your posts now (returned home from WDW this morning) and first off I am very glad that you are back posting again!! All of the information you put up here from the highs to the just as important lows give the rest of us an insight into what we can expect training for these races. I love the amount of detail you give and the fact that you don’t just give the good bits because it’s serious business putting your body through the training necessary for these challenge weekends and injuries are a common thing. It is so easy to get distracted by the shiny bling and ignore the amount of dedication, effort and sometimes heartache that comes with this.


I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again, your posts inspired me to rundisney, heck they inspired me to run period and as you know I'm just back from WDW marathon weekend having brought along both my Dad and Sister, neither would have gone unless I’d read your TR’s or training journals and we’re all back home with the Dopey challenge complete and over $4k raised for charity. So again thank you for continuing to post and sharing with us, I'm sure I'm one of many you've inspired!

I’m so sorry to hear that you had to postpone but reading through your posts I was thinking in my head ‘I hope she’s not too late to postpone’ as soon as you talked about the numb foot and back pain… I’m delighted that it doesn’t sound super serious and I’m crossing my fingers and toes for a speedy recovery for you.

Glad to see that you are noticing some improvements already and looking forward to your next update!

 

[roxymama]

I'll second that I'm just catching up on posts after marathon weekend and I'm impressed with how you are set on recovering. I'm the type to let things slide without seeing the doctor because of denial...or "it'll fix itself"...or "I can deal with it."
My husband had knee surgery over a year ago and is running now and says he is so glad that he fixed his issue.
I'm sad for you to miss out on something you were looking forward to...but at least now you have a new thing to look forward to...a hopefully pain free 2017 race weekend!

 

[cavepig]

Wow, crazy how things happen! Sad you had to defer but glad you are seeing improvements. Sciatica nerve pain sucks, I have had some with my piriformis injury, but like 10 years ago I had what you have with the foot numbing and leg pain from it, I think I ended up taking off like 4 months from running, but I've never had that specific issue again. I didn't have any surgeries so hopefully you won't either and those stretches hopefully will help you recover quicker. Good Luck healing and keep on posting your posts are great!

 

[flvy]

YES! I'm so glad there is good news in here. So so so so glad. You're being proactive and doing all the right things so I hope everything behaves as it should for you and you can just carry on with steady progress in getting better.

 

[emilyindisney]

Your back jokes hahahahah

You seem some much more positive about this which is great! Hopefully this is just a bump in the road and you'll be BACK to feeling better in no time (not as good as your's but I couldn't resist!) Plus, now you have an excuse to potentially sign up for a fall runDisney race

Sending you good vibes for your MRI