The sun was shining a little brighter in St. Louis today.\u00a0 Both literally and figuratively.\u00a0 We did actually hit a high in the mid-60\u2019s this afternoon which was a welcome break from the subzero temperatures we have become accustomed to this year.<\/p>\n
However, it wasn\u2019t just the weather that brightened my mood.\u00a0 This morning when I arrived at Brian\u2019s\u2026Uh, I mean Dr. Laiderman\u2019s office I was greeted by his office manager Debby and a hand written thank you note posted on the wall that I recognized the signature on to be that of my friend Diana. I filled out the electronic form and when I got to the question about who had referred me, I basically did an eeny-meany-miney-mo to land on Andrea\u2019s name since it could have been any number of people.\u00a0 And there’s the fact that I know him personally.<\/p>\n
Dr. L knew the gist of my situation since shortly after my near collapse on the floor of West County Lanes on Saturday I sent him a message saying something like\u2026Ouch, I hurt, how soon can you get me in?\u00a0 But when we got started he said, \u201cOk, pretend I don\u2019t know anything about you and tell me what’s going on\u201d.<\/p>\n
I went through the story of being out for a run with Brian\u2026my Brian.\u00a0 I can see how this might get confusing so for the sake of clarity “my Brian” will henceforth be referred to as Koz.\u00a0 So, I told Dr. L about our run on Al Foster a few weeks ago, attempting to let my hamstring heal, reinjuring it bowling and so on.<\/p>\n
Dr. L was convinced that there was more to it.\u00a0 He had me do some squats and stretches.\u00a0 He checked my range of motion and resistance levels on both legs.\u00a0 He definitely found the tender spots.\u00a0 I had tenderness in my legs, my back, my gluts, my hips, my calves and my feet.\u00a0 (Really?\u00a0 I have a messed up left hamstring, what\u2019s with the tenderness in my right foot?!) He was even concerned with the weird blood blister I had developed a few months ago that I had just attributed to\u00a0the stitching on my Cascadia\u2019s and the sizeable bunion on my right foot. \u00a0Anyway, we traced it back to last summer.\u00a0 Apparently my body was trying to tell me something then, I just chose not to listen to it until now. Remember all the hip trouble I was having leading up to Racine?\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s all connected. \u00a0And it\u2019s basically causing me to run all twisted up and hunched over.\u00a0 I\u2019m crooked. \u00a0He still wanted to determine why my hip was fatigued, but we figured that would come.\u00a0 It came sooner than we thought, but I\u2019ll get to that a little later.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s visit ended without time to begin treatment, so I\u2019m going back on Friday.\u00a0 The bad news is: I\u2019m giving up my bib for the Quivering Quads trail half marathon next month.\u00a0 As much as I hate missing my races, I\u2019m willing to do this knowing that we\u2019re focused on the big goal: Getting me healthy enough to kick it into high gear for Arizona training.\u00a0 But the good news is: Dr. L seems to think that after a couple rounds of treatment, I should be able to get back to running.\u00a0 Nothing crazy just yet, but when he said the words \u201c\u2026possibly a short run next week\u2026\u201d I almost cried out of sheer happiness.\u00a0 (I may have actually done so when I was alone in my car with the sound of Dr. L\u2019s words still ringing in my ears)<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve been feeling a little like I might never be able to run again.\u00a0 And while Koz told me that notion was completely irrational, it has still been hiding out in the back of my mind.\u00a0 Talk about a tough pill to swallow.\u00a0 Fortunately, I don\u2019t have to.<\/p>\n
On my way out, I stopped by Debby\u2019s desk to set up my next appointment on Friday morning.\u00a0 And then I practically skipped out of the building into the warmth of 57 degrees.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t actually skip, that would be silly seeing as I still can\u2019t run\u2026or even bowl for that matter.\u00a0 But I was walking on air.\u00a0 And the sun breaking up the overcast skies was symbolic to say the least.\u00a0 It\u2019s been chilly and gray here for weeks and now the sun is finally starting to shine.<\/p>\n
I celebrated by going over to the pool for a 2500 meter swim.\u00a0 I came out of the pool to a text from Steve, who is also a patient of Dr. L.\u00a0 Steve\u00a0signed up today for the Rev 3 full triathlon at Cedar Point this summer (To anyone not \u201cin the know\u201d, Rev 3 is a brand like Ironman that puts on various races of that same distance).\u00a0 Anyway, our text conversation went like this:<\/p>\n
Steve: \u00a0What did our buddy Brian have to say?<\/p>\n
RRG: Good prognosis.\u00a0 It\u2019s coming in form of an RRG update later.\u00a0 QQ is out, but I\u2019m ok with that. Focus is on the long term goal.<\/p>\n
RRG again: And btw, Congrats on signing up for Cedar Point.\u00a0 Woohoo!\u00a0 Oh, wait, I mean\u2026always gotta beat me to it, don\u2019t ya?\u00a0 Jerk.<\/p>\n
RRG again (What?!\u00a0 We all know I talk a lot.\u00a0 Would you expect my texting habits to be any different?): And especially funny to remember\u2026Hey Steve, do LSL (Lake St. Louis) with me.\u00a0 No, I don\u2019t think so\u2026well, ok.<\/p>\n
Steve: This is really all your fault.\u00a0 I was also reminiscing with Nick how when I first met you, you were asking what I was wanting out of the social run.\u00a0 I replied with thinking of maybe a fall half marathon.<\/p>\n
RRG: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!<\/p>\n
I went about the rest of the day, but I kept mulling over that weird pain in my right foot.\u00a0 And then suddenly it occurred to me.\u00a0 Sometimes I am such a dope, why hadn\u2019t I mentioned that to Dr. L when he asked about my injury history?!\u00a0 Duh.\u00a0 And so I sent him this message\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cOh my goodness!\u00a0 I don\u2019t know why I didn\u2019t think to tell you this today! I figured out what trauma started everything!<\/p>\n
In September of 2012 I was moving out of my old house and on the last load of stuff I took to the car I fell down the stairs and landed on the floor of the garage.\u00a0 I completely twisted my right foot, I thought it was broken.\u00a0 It was swollen and purple and green.\u00a0 But did I go to the hospital? No.\u00a0 Did I even see a doctor about it?\u00a0 Nope.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because I had the Chicago marathon 3 weeks later.\u00a0 I ran one time in those 3 weeks (the ultimate taper) just to make sure that I could still run at all.\u00a0 Then I ran a marathon.\u00a0 Then I took a short break from running.\u00a0 Then I started Half-Ironman training for Racine during which my right hip got out of whack, etc, etc\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
So, now that we know what started all of this, we can get on with the business of fixing it.\u00a0 There is a light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0 RRG will be back to running and good as new\u2026eventually.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The sun was shining a little brighter in St. Louis today.\u00a0 Both literally and figuratively.\u00a0 We did actually hit a high in the mid-60\u2019s this afternoon which was a welcome break from the subzero temperatures we have become accustomed to this year. However, it wasn\u2019t just the weather that brightened my mood.\u00a0 This morning when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-randomthoughts","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-9Q","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":611,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}