A Hard Start to the Year

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

This week has been extremely challenging. Work is basically a nightmare. Half our staff is gone and I’ve worked overtime the last three weeks. While I have no problem working extra once in a while, to expect me to run that whole place without a pay raise is unfair. I can’t physically handle the extra work and it’s really taking a toll on my body. I don’t have enough time to do everything I need to do, and I feel like I’m drowning. I know that sounds a little dramatic, but this is more stress than I thought. We still have no boss, and I haven’t heard if there’s an estimate. I refused to work 6 days this week to let my body rest, and I guess the boss two levels over me didn’t mind. I had told her I was having difficulties with injuries, so I guess she understood. I’ll do 6 days next week since I’m off on Saturday because it won’t seem so bad having just had a bit of a break, but I’m hoping that will be it. We should be getting a part time assistant manager in soon, and that should make it possible to have a better schedule. She used to work for us before and wanted to come back, so even if I have to work longer shifts twice a week to get two days off again, I’m okay with that. She may not be able to start next week, but the week after I’m hoping everything will be finalized and I can feel a little better physically and mentally.

The worst thing that happened to me this week was that doctor’s appointment for a second opinion about my foot. I wrote before about how the surgeon who did my Achilles tendon thinks it’s arthritis, and I’m just not sure that’s all that’s going on because one of the places it hurts is too superficial and not in a joint. I wanted to hear someone else’s thoughts on it because I’m just not willing to undergo another surgery after I worked so hard to get to the point of being active again after the last one. This new doctor, I’ll call him Dr. E, was something else, and not in a good way. For the two hours I spent at the office (part of that was waiting for x-rays), I saw him for all of ten minutes, if even that long. He didn’t ask any of the usual questions any other doctor asks, like what the pain feels like, what makes it worse/better, etc. He looked at my foot and compared it to the left and declared that he saw nothing wrong. He said my bad foot had good strength and movement, but I wasn’t having a particularly painful day when I went because I had that day off from work. It was still visibly swollen and tender to touch, so I don’t know how he thought that was okay. The only thing he told me he could try was a very restrictive brace that wouldn’t let my ankle move at all, but I’d have to wear it for four months. I just can’t stand the thought of giving up biking and running for four months after fighting so hard to gain those things back last year. I’ve tried immobilizing it before with no success, so I guess I really don’t see the benefit of going through that again for such a long time. I wouldn’t mind trying a supportive brace that would allow me to still be active, but I was basically shut down any time I tried to ask a question. He told me he was sorry he couldn’t help me and left the room. No follow-up, no trying to figure out a plan, nothing. I cried most of the drive home out of sheer frustration.

This week I also had a follow-up with the doctor treating my hip injury, and that appointment went much better. He said it’s healing a little slowly, but that doesn’t surprise me considering the hours I’ve been working. The doctor told me that it takes about three months to fully heal this kind of injury and that I didn’t need to come back for another appointment unless things started bothering me more. He also told me I still shouldn’t run for another six weeks and that he’ll leave the decision of more physical therapy up to me and my PT to discuss on Friday.

So there you have it: not exactly the greatest week, but at least the hip is moving in the right direction. I’ll take slower progress over none any day.

New Year, New Goals

On By LeraIn Life2 Comments

Happy New Year to everyone! This is the time of year most people set new goals for themselves, but I’m still working on my goals from last year. That’s not to say I haven’t edited them a little bit, though!

I want to talk a bit about 2019, first. Those of you who have been following me know that it was a hard year for me. I had a long and challenging recovery from insertional Achilles tendon repair that forced me to constantly push my goals back. Then, when I thought I was doing okay (save for the mysterious foot issue unrelated to my Achilles tendon), I hurt my hip while working toward my goal of running a 5k. Then there’s work, which I can’t go into too much detail about, but I can tell you that my boss took a new job and his last day was the day after Christmas. Since then, it’s been total chaos and it hasn’t even been two weeks. I’m expected to act like a full manager without the benefit of more pay, and I’m not going to stand for it much longer.

Given everything, to say I’m looking forward to a better 2020 is an understatement. I’m trying not to get my hopes up so I don’t get disappointed, but I feel like this year should be a good one. Last year I had a pretty good bike year despite everything, and I rode 1,766 miles! That’s not even for a full year since I only was allowed to ride again in April. I think I can do better this year, though, and my goal is 2,100 miles. Since I live in Michigan, the weather can be unpredictable in winter, but so far I’ve been able to get out a couple of times a week. I expect things to take a turn eventually, but I’m certainly enjoying this mild winter!

My first ever 5k was supposed to be February 15, but I’m probably not going to be able to run it. I’m going to discuss the practicality of it at physical therapy Tuesday, but I don’t think it’d be a good idea to push myself too much. I’ll probably have to wait until March, so I’m already bracing myself for the bad news. I have a follow-up appointment with my doctor for my hip in a week and a half, and I’ll be sure to ask about resuming running.

Moving along, I’ve still been having trouble with my foot, and I have an appointment set up with another doctor for a second opinion. I still don’t accept that it’s only arthritis going on when at one point that same doctor thought there was an impingement of some kind. I got the name of this new doctor from my physical therapist, so I’m hoping he’s good. He’s published research about foot/ankle issues, so I feel pretty good about seeing him. My PT originally had suggested I see someone about an hour away because that surgeon also has a degree in PT and is supposed to be amazing, but he’s not taking any new patients. If that changes in the future and I’m still having problems, I’m definitely calling for an appointment. I just wish I knew what was still wrong with my foot. Last week, my PT tried taping my ankle so my fibula didn’t move so much, but I’m not sure it helped much. I wouldn’t mind trying again on a day where I’m going to work after my session instead of a day off. In other news, I started wearing a heel lift to correct my short right leg. I had worn one when I was a kid, and then again temporarily about ten years ago, but not since. My PT says he’s hoping it will help my hip settle down, and it seems to be helping a little bit.

I feel like this update is a little disorganized, but that’s what my life feels like right now. Having no boss at work means a lot of extra work for me since there are only a handful of reliable people there. I am struggling physically with the increased demands of the job, not to mention the stress is giving me mini panic attacks. 2020 is starting out as a struggle, but things are bound in improve from here. I’m hoping to do a semi local 30 mile bike ride this year, run at least five 5k races, and maybe pick up martial arts at some point this year if I’m ever able to. I’ll have an update again after my appointments mid-month, so until then, take care!

Battle Plan

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

My hip pain has not resolved despite it having been seven weeks. I talked to my physical therapist a couple of weeks ago and he recommended a new doctor to me who is good with younger active patients with hip injuries. I looked him up and he’s published a ton of research and is team physician to several area college teams. I had my initial appointment with him today, and he seems to be really good. I didn’t tell him what my PT thought was going on at first just to see if he thought the same thing, and he did: gluteus medius tendonitis and trochanteric bursitis. He’s having me do formal physical therapy (I was just doing stretches on my own at home) and he’s going to reevaluate in six weeks and if it’s not better by then, he’ll try a steroid injection.

I called my physical therapist as soon as I got home from my appointment and he told me he had a light afternoon and offered me an appointment 45 minutes from the time I called. I was really glad to be able to start today so I can recover sooner. The only downside is that if this injury had waited a month, my insurance would cover it because my benefits would have reset. That means I’ll be doing self-pay until New Year’s, by which time I’ll be almost done with my course of treatment if all goes well. My therapist and the office manager were really apologetic about me having to pay myself, but I honestly don’t even care that my benefits are used up. I knew that going in and I knew what the fee was from last time, so it was expected. I’m just glad to be able to get some help getting back to my normal activities and not being in pain every day. The cost is worth it to get my life back.

Today’s PT session focused on a thorough evaluation of my hip injury and setting up a plan. My therapist told me that we needed to try to figure out why my foot is still an issue because if I’m limping on it and not walking normally, it will affect other areas of my body. I was very happy to hear that because I would love to know what’s actually wrong with my foot. I have nothing against the surgeon who fixed my tendon; that’s 90% better or more than it was before surgery and I’m grateful for that, but there’s no way I’m having surgery on my foot again anytime soon until I feel absolutely certain of the problem.

Other than those two appointments, my day was filled with lots of phone calls and emails. The asthma inhaler I had been taking all year is suddenly not allowed to be filled at the local pharmacy anymore. Instead, it has to be filled through the mail because it’s a maintenance medication, which costs more sometimes. At the pharmacy, I was using a manufacturer coupon to get the copay reduced to $10/month. The mail order pharmacy doesn’t take coupons and the copay there is $63. I emailed my family doctor and asked to switch to something with a lower copay and he was nice enough to change it for me without me coming in for an appointment. The weird problem is that the generic version of what I switched to costs $40 more per month than the name brand, and the doctor sent the generic on the prescription because generic is always cheaper, except apparently in this case. I found that out because I called the mail order pharmacy and made them give me the copay amounts to make sure they matched what I was told they were supposed to be by the insurance company, and indeed the name brand inhaler is cheaper than the generic. So now the pharmacy is supposed to contact the doctor’s office tomorrow to get the prescription changed to the name brand, and hopefully that will clear things up. I bothered my doctor so much today with an email chain while we tried to work out the issue that I really hope tomorrow will be the last I’ll have to cause him trouble.

That’s all I have for now, and hopefully the next time I write I’ll have some good news. I’m benched from running for the next six weeks but I can still bike as long as it doesn’t hurt, so at least I can try to keep up my conditioning. I have major doubts that I will be making my first 5k in February. I wasn’t given a clear answer when I asked my PT, which I understand because it’s still too early to know. If I have to push it back, so be it. There’s no use stressing about something I have little control over. All I can do is put my best effort into PT and trust that God will let everything work out eventually. So, until next time, I hope everyone is doing well!

November Update

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

I’m having a day where I’m feeling pretty low. I had a follow-up appointment with my surgeon today to see how taking the meloxicam every day was helping me. This past month was the least amount of pain I’ve had in a very long time, which has been nice, but I was out of medication three days ago and I can already feel the difference in my pain level. My doctor offered to let me keep taking it if I was getting blood work done occasionally by my primary care doctor, but I declined for the time being. Apparently it can cause kidney damage with chronic usage, and that’s not something I really want to deal with. I’m young and healthy, so the chances of that would be low, but I don’t want to risk it. I would rather get to the root cause of the issue my foot is having than just masking it by taking medication all the time. He said to call if I changed my mind, so at least he’s leaving the option open.

In other news, I still don’t know what’s going on with my foot. I just can’t believe that all of this pain is from the tiny bit of arthritis in my subtalar joint. It just doesn’t feel like joint pain. I feel like something is being pinched, and there seems to be some soft tissue swelling in my right foot over an area where there’s an indent in my left foot. I’m not saying the arthritis isn’t causing some mild pain, but I still don’t think that’s the whole story. Now I don’t know what to do. My doctor just told me to come back as needed, but if he isn’t going to explore any other options, then I don’t see the point. I obviously don’t have the level of expertise that he does, but the fact that the joint injection I had a while back didn’t help more than a couple of days tells me that there’s something else happening, especially since even the doctor was surprised by it. I have the option of trying another injection if I feel like I need it, and I might try it again shortly before my 5k.

An unintended consequence of the meloxicam was how much it was masking my true level of hip pain from my gluteus medius tendinitis. I’m feeling more pain in the last couple of days than I was while I was still taking the medication. I’m diligently working on the stretches and exercises my physical therapist gave me and icing my hip a couple of times each day, but if this hasn’t started to improve by this time next week, I’m going to have to call and ask what to do. I’m still hoping I can avoid formal sessions because I want to get back to training, but if I do have to do them, it’s better to start as early as possible. It’s already been three weeks since I hurt myself, and I really miss running. I’ll do whatever I have to in order to get back to it.

Well, I suppose that’s all I have for now. Hopefully the next time I write, I’ll have some good news to share with all of you.

Tendinitis Again

On By LeraIn Cycling, Life, runningLeave a comment

I had my physical therapist look at my hip today and he said it was likely gluteus medius tendinitis/muscle strain. I got lucky and don’t have to do formal sessions again, but he gave me some stretches and exercises to work on for the next couple of weeks at home. If those don’t make the injury better, then I’m supposed to call and let him know, but I’m hoping they do the trick. I can’t run until the pain is almost gone or I risk it becoming an ongoing issue. The good news is that I can bike as long as it doesn’t hurt, so I’ll keep doing that in the meantime. Hopefully I’ll be back to pounding the pavement soon!

Injuries Galore

On By LeraIn Cycling, LifeLeave a comment

Hello, all. It’s been an interesting month to say the least. I thought when I graduated from physical therapy, I would be okay for a while, but a week and a half ago, I did something to my hip while I was running, or more accurately, it just decided to get angry at me for no reason 24 minutes into my run. It hasn’t gone away yet, so Monday I’m planning to call my physical therapist and see if he can look at it. Hip injuries are one of his areas of specialty, so I’m hoping he’ll be able to see me next week. Michigan is thankfully a state where I don’t have to get a referral from a doctor to see a PT, which saves me some time. I love my primary care doctor, but there’s usually a week or two wait for non-urgent conditions. The sooner I can get this injury looked at and treatment started, the better. I haven’t been running since it happened since just walking aggravates it, but at least I can keep up my conditioning by biking since that doesn’t hurt it. I was so close to my goal for easing my way back into tennis, and this is going to set that goal back probably at least a month, if not more. At this rate, I won’t be able to play until spring since I just play at the local parks and the snow will be here before too much longer.

In addition to my hip, I’ve got a few other areas that are starting to rebel against me, so being able to get some help from my PT should hopefully fix those before they become real injuries. The Achilles tendon I had surgery on is bothering me in a different place than it has been, along with my right hamstring just above my knee, my right hip flexor, the outside of my right leg (I suspect it’s the IT band), and both legs just above my knee on the front inside side. Everything but my hip is only bothering me occasionally, but prevention is key. I can’t say I didn’t expect problems after not having been able to run for more than two years, but I didn’t expect everything to fall apart all at once. I made it seven weeks on my running program (this would have been week 9), so at least I was able to start. Hopefully I can get back to it soon. I need to be race ready by February!

Other than all the “fun” injuries, the NSAID trial is going really well. I have a lot less pain in my foot now compared to when I started it. I’ve even had three days without any pain there whatsoever. It’s been such a luxury getting out of bed in the morning and not having pain right away as soon as I stand up, or working all day and having very minimal pain most days. My only concern is with long-term side effects, which I’ll be discussing with my doctor when I go back in a week and a half. I also worry that the medication is masking some of pain from the areas that are bothering me, and I’m hoping I’m not unknowingly doing damage to them.

Lastly, this month I’ve been dealing with jury duty. My local court has people on call for an entire month, so I have to keep calling in to see when I have to show up. Thankfully, I’ve only had to go once so far. Just when the judge was starting to interview prospective jurors, the man on trial decided he wanted to take a plea deal instead of having a trial. I guess he decided it was in his best interest since he showed up late and slightly drunk (a cop had to come do a breathalyzer test on him), and the judge told us all before we left he went to a four year prison sentence with the plea deal instead of risking up to life in prison. I don’t remember all the details, but if he had shown up on time and sober, his sentence would have been a lot less, but the judge said that he had the ability to add time for those reasons in addition to his crimes. Thankfully next week is the last week, and I’m hoping there’s no trial scheduled so I have more time to get some help for my hip. I’m working six days straight next week, so I need all the time I can to properly rehab this problem.

Another Update

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

I had another appointment with my surgeon yesterday. My Achilles tendon is holding up pretty well, but the unknown issue on the outside of my ankle is still troublesome. The steroid injection only lasted a few days, which seemed to perplex my doctor. He said it should have lasted longer than that. Of course, my problem is apparently really unusual because he still doesn’t know in full what it is. Some of the pain is probably due to the arthritis I have in my subtalar joint (that’s right— I’m old at only 32 years of age), but there’s still something else not right around the area where all the ligaments are. He presented me with a list of options to try, which all focus more on the joint, and I’m just not convinced that’s all that’s wrong.

First up, I am trying a daily prescription anti-inflammatory until my follow up appointment in a month. I’m hoping that ends up helping. If that doesn’t work, I have four other options he presented me with. The next step would probably be another injection, this time with ultrasound guidance, which would take place two months from now. I also could get a brace custom made, but it would be restrictive and not allow me to run. I brought up that concern with him and he said we could wait a little while to try it since I’m training for my 5k. I wouldn’t mind wearing something like that for work, though, since I’m on my feet all day. The only other options he brought up besides the ones above were both surgical. He could either do a surgery to clean the joint up a little bit, or he could do a subtalar fusion. I really don’t want another surgery any time soon, especially a fusion because that would limit the activities I finally have hope of performing in the near future. The only way I would consider surgery again is if that’s the last option and the pain gets so severe every day that I can’t take it anymore.

For now, I’ll just keep doing conservative treatments. Even though some days the pain will get to a 5 or 6 out of 10, it’s not every day and usually not even all day. It’s definitely worse on days I’m working. I’m trying to find a less physical job so I can get some relief, but that’s been a challenge so far. In the meantime, I’ve still been running three days a week. I feel like I should be doing more, but I will not cause myself anymore injury by overdoing it. I have four months until my race, so that’s plenty of time to be conditioning my body once my endurance improves.

Putting My Best Foot Forward

On By LeraIn Life, runningLeave a comment

Today was a much deserved day off work. I’ve been covering for my boss while he’s out of town and it’s been hectic. Yesterday physically kicked my butt and I woke up with some pain and swelling in my bad ankle. Nevertheless, I decided to test it on an interval run this morning and it held up. Lately, I’ve been training with a friend once a week, and it’s a lovely change of pace from going alone. I think the extra motivation and having someone to help push me when I get tired is really helpful. After today’s adventure, we went to our favorite cafe for a bubble tea. It was a great way to cool off and relax a little.

After she went home, I took a quick shower and went to get some dedicated running shoes. My physical therapist gave me a referral slip to a locally owned running shop where they assess your gait and foot type and help you pick out exactly what you need. I tried on about a dozen pairs before I found the shoes that felt best. My right foot (the one with the issues) needed to be corrected with extra support, and I felt the difference just walking in them in the store. I’m really hoping they feel just as good when I run in them for the first time. I’ve been having more pain today than I’ve had in a while, so even though I was planning to run tomorrow, I’ll have to see what the morning brings. It would probably be wiser to hold off until Sunday. Either way, I’ll get to try my new shoes soon, so I’m trying to be patient. It’s nice that I look forward to the next day I can train; I’ve never been a runner before, but I’ve been enjoying it for the month I’ve been doing it (even though it wears me out almost as much as work).

In case you’re curious, these are the shoes I bought. Let me introduce the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 19. I also love the paragraph on the inside of the box, so I’ll share that as well. I’m hoping I can give these shoes plenty of adventures!

Graduation From Physical Therapy!

On By LeraIn Life, SurgeryLeave a comment

As the title suggests, I am officially done with physical therapy! I can’t even begin to express my gratitude to the entire staff at my clinic. I’m so blessed that I found a clinic where everybody goes above and beyond and where they refuse to give up until there’s no options left. If my therapist hadn’t been willing to try everything, I don’t think I would’ve made this much progress. ASTYM really made a huge difference for me and the progress that I was able to make, and I’m glad my therapist is one of the few in the area certified in it. He told me to let him know when I can run 20 minutes without pain, and he’ll give me some exercises to get ready for tennis. According to the running plan I’ve been following, that could be in as little as six weeks if all goes well. Even if it takes a little bit longer, I don’t mind as long as I’m not going to hurt myself by overdoing it. I’ve put too much work into this recovery to have a setback that I made for myself. It’s nice to know that even though I am officially done with therapy, I can still ask for help if I need it. The cup in the picture above was a gift from my clinic, and I plan to proudly display it on my bookshelf as a reminder of all the hard work recovery has taken, and will continue to take.

I’m really excited to have the green light to train for my local hot cocoa 5k run in February. I even have a friend training for it, too, so it’ll be even more fun! Running still feels challenging, but in a good way. I look forward to each day I can get outside and grow a little bit stronger. So far my Achilles tendon has only bothered me once while running, and not even enough to stop. The main problem now is the other undiagnosed issue on the outside of my ankle on that same foot. The steroid shot didn’t work as well as I had hoped and I was sore again a week later. I’m guessing when I go for the follow up appointment, I’ll be sent for some tests. For now, that issue is letting me run as long as I do a good warm up, so I’m going to keep going for it. My doctor and my PT both said it was okay to run, so unless things get worse, I’m going to keep going. It feels so good to finally have my goals move a little closer to my reach. It took me longer to get to this point than many others who had the same surgery as me, but I made it, and that’s what matters 🙂

It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

On By LeraIn Life, running, SurgeryLeave a comment

Ironically, I highly doubt a marathon will ever be in my future 😀 It’s been a week full of news, some good, some not so good. I’ve been off work all week, which has been nice. I really needed the break to help my foot feel better. It’s never happy when I spend all day on it nearly every day. It’s been feeling pretty good this week, but I’m trying not to get too spoiled.

I had my follow-up with my surgeon on Wednesday. My Achilles tendon is getting there, slowly, but it’s still making forward progress. However, the issue with the outside of my ankle on that same foot has been feeling worse. It’s been holding me back more than my Achilles tendon some days. The doctor looked at it and said he wasn’t 100% sure what it was, but that it could possibly be an impingement of some sort. He asked if it hurt bad enough to try a steroid injection, and I immediately said yes, so that’s what he did. It didn’t hurt as much as I thought it would, but it was still not a great feeling. It felt like a strong ache deep inside my ankle. Some of the swelling is down now, but I’m not sure if it’s because of the shot or because I’ve been off work so many days now. I guess I’ll find out next week. The doctor said that he’s going to check my foot again in a month and decide from there whether he wants me to have some tests done. He wants to know how the steroids worked first. He told me he was fine with me running on it in the meantime, so I’m glad I can keep trying to work on that as long as it will let me.

Thursday I had another physical therapy appointment. I hadn’t been in close to three weeks, so it was nice to be able to get a little extra relief. My therapist wanted to wait until after I had my next doctor’s appointment to find out what was going on with the side of my ankle. He spent a lot of time with me discussing realistic goals and making sure I didn’t try to push myself too much. I was told it would be better to wait until spring to attempt a 5k run because he wanted me to increase my training very slowly so I don’t end up making anything worse. So naturally, tennis and martial arts will be pushed back as well, but he did tell me that I can hit the ball against a board if I was careful not to do jarring movements. Not quite the same, but at least it’s something. He told me that once I can run a mile without pain, then I can look at getting back to some activities slowly. That still seems like a long way off. My therapist taught me some new exercises to help build strength and balance in my right leg, which is what it needs. After doing them yesterday, I have sore quads today, but at least I know that my muscles will get stronger doing them. It’s a good kind of pain because it will have benefits in the future. He told me that he was going to leave it up to me when I come back for another appointment, and if I wanted to check back in every couple of weeks, I could, or if I wanted to try doing things on my own, he was fine with that, too. I told him I honestly was afraid to be on my own right now because it’s never gone well when I’ve tried it in the past, so I’m going back in two weeks. I think it’s wiser to do that to make sure I’m not hurting myself with the new increases in activity I’m trying.

Given all the new information, I thought I’d try working on an interval plan to get me running. Since I’ve been told not to do too much too fast, I’ve been using the None to Run plan, which is online for free. It’s a twelve week program that’s supposed to get you running 25 minutes straight, which will eventually get me to a 5k. I’m not going to be at the front of the pack of any race, but I just want to be able to do it. This program is slower than other interval running plans, which should make my PT happy enough, and I can repeat any weeks I need to until I don’t have pain when doing them. I did the first day of week 2 yesterday, which is a 5 minute warm-up, and then intervals of 1 minute of slow running and 2 minutes of walking until you get a total of 25 minutes. It was hard for me. I’m used to biking, which gets my heart rate up, but running is so much harder. Maybe once I build some muscle back up in my right leg, it will feel easier. I got sore part way through, but not enough to stop. I finished the intervals as laid out, and plan to try again tomorrow morning. I’m trying to give myself a day between runs and plan it for days I start later at work to maximize the chances of success.

I may not have an update for a couple of weeks, so as always, take care! If you have experience getting back to activity after an injury, let me know what kind of tips you have that worked well for you!