Heartland Series Training Week 7 (AKA I'm injured, please help me:)

After Sunday's run, I was feeling pretty defeated.  I like running, it  is my stress relief, and quite frankly, my addiction.  If I can't run I feel very irritable and lost.  My poor hubby catches the brunt of it and even if I try to curb it, it still comes out. Here is how the week played out.

Monday:  Another visit to the chiro.  When I told him about the pain during my run friday and sunday, and having to quit sunday during my long run, he actually said "good, that is awesome".  I was really, really confused.   Usually when the pain gets worse, the dr/chiro/massage dude says, whoa, "stop running, shut er down".  My new chiro didn't say that at all.  Instead, he said he wanted me to continue to run, but way dialed down.  He wanted me to stick to a mile running, with every other tenth of a mile walking.  He wanted me to stay active and on the road, versus shutting running down.  I was not ready to hear that. I was ready to not run for a full week, and hit the pool.  He quickly told me no, he wanted me to stay out just way less than what I had been doing.  He thought the pain was a good thing because it was un winding the injury.  He felt like this pain was expected and invited, and was a good sign.  I am still on the fence.  I am very glad that I am able to do something that resembles running, and I may very yet still hit the pool for some water jogging.  I dutifully did my mile with every 10th of a mile being a walk or run.  I had zero pain during the run/walk, so there is that.  None of the pain I had during my planned long run. And then I came home and put on my compression socks.  This is a  HUGE deal because my foot has not been able to handle compression at all for 3 weeks!!!!  I guess we are making progress even if it is super slow.   I am trying to trust the progress and not think about the fact that I have a race that I so wanted to do well in, in 3 weeks.  In fact, every time I have entered the st. Pat's day race, I have ended up with an injury right before it, so maybe I need to just stop entering it???

Okay so I don't have running pics but this is my new sacouny hat that I got on clearance.  It's reversible and super cute!

Tuesday:  Day off for Love and Logic class.  I was super sore from what I hoped was the adjustment the day before.  My foot was really  hurting, back up to what it was previously and in different places.  My spirits really dipped.  I am trying to stay in the mindset of that it gets worse before it gets better.  It's hard.  I want to feel better, not feel more pain.

Hot fudge ice cream sundaes make everything better right?

Wednesday: 1 mile with a tenth walking and a tenth running.  I was super sore again, but I wanted to run/walk to see if I had pain during the run.  Whelp, the answer to that is yes, yes it did hurt during my run/walk.  Not horrible, just a little dull ache.  Enough for me to say no more running this week.  Did an upper body work out but even getting in plank hurt my foot as well as downward facing dog.

Andrew and his bestie painting. 

Thursday: Another visit to the chiro.  I had decided after two days of pain that I wanted imaging done on my foot.  I was very honest in all of my feelings and how upset I was that we weren't seeing any progress.  Other than adjustments to my left hip that he adjusted last time, he could not find anything that should be causing the pain.  My foot bones are in perfect alignment.  I told him i could feel every ligament in my foot and that the outside ligament hurt the worst.  He wanted me to take the rest of the week off from ALL working out.  No upper body workout, no elliptical, no water jogging.  He felt like I wasn't healing for some reason, and that i needed to give my body a full break.  He also said he wanted me to see my GP, and get some imaging done.  While he couldn't find anything wrong and didn't think I had a stress fracture, he was completely at a loss as to what this is and why it won't go away.  He told me that he couldn't do anything else for me, and that I could come back for regular adjustments, but that he really couldn't help me with my foot.  I appreciate his honesty.  He could have taken my money, had me come in multiple times a week, and lead me on.  Instead he cut me loose, and for that, I will come back and get regular adjustments in the future.  I have an appointment with my GP on friday, and hope to get some imaging done or be referred to one of the sports medicine places in town.  He also suggested that I might want to get a as he called it "mega dose" of anti inflammatories.  I am not a fan of that suggestion, but he described it as a small fire that won't go out that needs to be put out.  I am still on the fence with this one.  He did do the tuning fork trick on me checking for stress fractures, which I know is not scientific at all, but I had no reaction to any places he put the fork so that is good.

I hate having to come here:(

Friday:  Visit with GP.  Well, not much really happened.  I didn't get to see my GP, but another Dr at her clinic.  She was not a runner and rolled her eyes at me several times while I was telling her what all had transpired.   She informed me that runners were always injured, and I informed her I have been running for around 7 years, and I have only  had 2 injuries, so I think that is pretty good.  She quickly told me she could do x-rays, but that probably was not going to tell her anything, which i agreed. She also said she could not order an MRI, because she did not think my insurance would cover it.  She told me the best she could do was put me in a boot for six weeks.  I told her that didn't make sense to me at all, that I needed a diagnosis, or a better guess as to what this is.  She refused to give me any steriods or more powerful anti inflammatories.  She took x-rays that I feel like will probably be useless, and be re taken.  I asked for a referral to an ortho/sports med dr and she said yes.  I at least I got something out of the co-pay.   She did not feel like it was a nerve issue but she did say that if I wanted to get a referral to a neurologist, that she would happily refer me.  Don't get me wrong, she was super nice, she just didn't see why I was so up in arms about getting this figured out and  get back to running.  The runner's mind is complex and you either get it or you don't.  She even said she knew nothing about chiropractics and didn't understand why I was exploring that option.  I can't be the only patient in her career that uses chiropractics but it doesn't matter now. I got my referral, and will go from there.  I am also taking four days of a double dose of Aleve  every 12 hours, to see if I can quench the inflammation on my own.  This was totally at the advice from my local pharmacist.  I have taken advil sporadically through this, and at best it has dulled the pain down to a quiet roar.  I have had one double dose of Aleve and have 0 pain as of right now, so I think this may be a good thing.

My hope is that next week I can at least resume working out with non weight bearing activities.  I hope to hit the pool and the elliptical and resume upper body strength work outs.  I see doug for more ART and massage monday so hoping to get some good results from that and get in with the ortho doc as well.

Have a great weekend!!!