The Highs and Lows

I know.  It's like I just disappeared.  Another abandoned blog in the internet wilderness.

Well, I'm back, sort of.  Things were looking up but one very normal day in June I went for a run and after 0.2 miles, there was a pop.  I've never had a pop.  It scared me a lot.  I broke down after that.  My doctor determined that I was past what PT could do for me.  PT is for acute not chronic conditions I was told.  I was offered a lot of options.  Many of these options were drugs.  There is some science to suggest anti-depressants could help with the joint stiffness and fibromyalgia medication could dull the nerve pain. These medications have a lot of side effects.  A lot.  So the question then became what length would I go to just to run again.  I decided it wasn't worth it, so I never took the drugs.  I was on a two month wait for the orthopaedic surgeon after that.

My first appointment with the ortho was Aug. 10.  I went to Columbus Orthopaedic.  They were all highly recommended doctors and I was told they were the absolute best.  My doctor specializes in foot and ankle.  He said that he wanted to see an MRI, but he was thinking surgery.  After seeing my MRI the ruling was that my tendon was not all that bad, but because of the duration of my injury, I could still have surgery.  The surgery he recommended was gastro recession or "muscle/tendon lengthening". 

I had a trip planned in September.  We decided it would be best to wait until after my trip because no one wants to be in a cast at Disneyland!  In the meantime, he suggested I take up an aggressive stretching routine.  They have a PT clinic inside their ortho clinic, so I was sent over to Rehab at Work to learn my stretches.  After 2 months of stretching, I decided to try running.

It's been a month, and I am up to running 3 miles.  I am also spinning.  I have minimal pain, but I can tell it's not healed.  Yesterday at my appointment the doctor told me if I was questioning if surgery was right for me, then surgery was not right for me.  He had me go back to Rehab at Work to learn a new set of exercises.  He believes that I can heal on my own in 4-6 months if I can keep my leg muscles loose and build up my hip and calf strength.  It takes almost an hour a day to do all my stretches, exercises, and icing, but if I can avoid surgery I have to tell myself it is worth the time investment.

I signed up for a 5K this Saturday.  Wish me luck!