Nineteen
Today was my first “longer run” (more than 17 miles) since my sartorius injury. I did 19, which is a far cry from a marathon distance, but I’m hoping I can slowly build back up to that.
Though I can already tell that I’m going to be super sore tomorrow.
Leeeeeeeeeg
I had my first physical therapy appointment today and my physical therapist came to the same conclusion that the clinic doctor did: I done botched up my sartorius muscle.
It sounds like it will take a decent amount of time for it to heal, but she also cleared me for running if I could deal with the pain, so that’s good at least.
Buh.
OH GOD THAT WAS PAINFUL
So as I mentioned yesterday, today I decided to run for the first time since busting up my leg.
Super
SUPER
painful.
Especially at the start. Even after taking a few ibuprofens. It was like my whole upper leg was on fire for the first several miles, and that only diminished slightly as I kept running. And trying to run on any sort of uneven surface (like the back road in Bowness, which has a decently steep slant to it)? OH MY GOD PAIN.
But I was able to do it. I was able to run 16 miles.
Not sure how much pain I’ll be in tomorrow, but at least I was able to do it.
This is going to be a long, painful recovery.
Results
So for the first time since I went in for my PMLE issues in 2019, I went to see a doctor today because of my leg.
And the doctor, after a very thorough inspection, confirmed what I figured: an injury to my sartorius muscle.
(Pic from Wikipedia)
She recommended that I go see a manual therapist. Then I left without paying because THIS STUFF IS FREE IN CANADA
(Sorry, I’m still not over that. And yes, I know we do technically pay via taxes, shut up.)
Anyway, I looked up manual therapists and there’s actually a few that work in the physiotherapy place right across the street and the medical plaza, so I’m going to see if I can make an appointment with one of them soon.
The doctor also said that I could run without causing further damage, but that doing so will probably be very painful until things start to heal.
So I’m going to try to run tomorrow.
The Leg (not the one you’re thinking of)
So.
I did something to my OTHER leg now.
Over the past week or so, when I’d start out on a walk or run, I’d feel this sharp pain in the middle of my quad, but the pain would diminish (relatively quickly) as I kept walking/running. It had started to last a bit longer each time, but it would eventually get better.
Today, however, after getting back from my run, I noticed that the pain was really lingering…to the point that it wasn’t going away at all.
I tried to ignore it as we went to Walmart and did other errands and stuff, but now it’s late at night and it hurts SO FREAKING BADLY.
Like, the pain is at a level where I almost wonder if I have some sort of stress fracture or something in my femur.
It really, really hurts. And I consider myself to have a pretty high pain tolerance.
So yeah. That is SUPER discouraging. Unless this magically gets better, I’m going to have to go to a doctor once we get back up to Calgary.
Edit: I think the pain started not too long after I bit it on that one run. Maybe I really twisted my leg more than I thought I did.
Edit 2 (from later in the month): LOL IT’S JUST A MUSCLE STRAIN WHY THE HELL DOES MY FEMUR FEEL LIKE IT IS GOING TO CRACK IN HALF
OUCH
Okay, so good news first: today was absolutely FANTASTIC weather for running. I did a marathon and it felt like my typical 16-mile run. Super easy. Super relaxing.
Now the bad news: at mile 23 of said marathon run, I totally bit it and tore up my knees, shoulder, and hand. Not sure exactly what happened – I think I just lost my equilibrium – I was just suddenly skidding along the pavement, haha. Luckily I was starting to go up a hill, so it wasn’t too bad. But I’m not sure what was worse: the family riding their bikes who saw me and asked if I was okay (super kind of them, but also super embarrassing) or the fact that I still had three miles to run and had to do it with a very bloody knee and a road rash shoulder.
Pics or it didn’t happen, you say?
(These were taken on Tuesday after I took the initial bandages off)
Killer road rash.
I don’t know how I managed to get my shoulder so badly, but I did. The funny thing is that my OTHER shoulder is the one that hurts and that didn’t touch the ground at all.
Ignore the bandage residue. Also ignore the other scars. Also ignore how FREAKING DEFORMED my leg looks at this angle.
Fun times!
Well, hell.
YOOOOOOOOOOOO so I botched up my leg again.
Or rather, my ankle/heel?
I think I must have pulled/strained something down there while walking on the treadmill these past few days. I suspect I take much wider/longer strides on the treadmill than I do when I’m outside. Thus, since I’ve had to spend every freaking day this past week on the treadmill (due to the fact that the outside temp = death), I think I just messed it up through the repetitive unnatural stride.
So that’s great.
It’s not nearly as bad pain-wise as whatever I did to my leg/knee in 2017, but it definitely hurts. Now that I’m able to walk outside, maybe if I go slow(er) with my natural stride, it’ll just kind of self-correct and get back to normal on its own.
I’ve already been to the doctor once in the past year; my quota has been used up.
Edit: I got coolio prescription sunglasses now, though, so at least that’s snazzy. How do I look?
The LEG, the LEG, the LEG the LEG the LEG
Today marks the one-year anniversary of me screwing up my leg/thigh/whatever. I still don’t know exactly what happened because I never did go to the doctor (I am a responsible adult, after all, living in a country where it doesn’t cost your first-born son to go to a doctor), but I’m going to say that it was a muscle tear. That’s the only thing I can imagine a) feeling like that, b) hurting in the very specific situations where it hurt, and c) taking this damn long to heal.
It’s still not all the way healed. I feel it twinge on occasion and am still a bit terrified to run, kneel, or even just stretch the muscles in that leg. But it is a lot better than it was. It’s finally to the point where I’m not constantly thinking about it. It’s finally to the point where I feel like I can start pushing it on my walks a little bit more.
It would have been great if it had never happened, but I suppose, given how much I walk, there could have been many more worse injuries I could have sustained. And honestly, as I’ve said before, it probably would have healed faster if I’d actually given it a chance to heal rather than pounding it into the pavement for 15 miles a day after two days of “rest.”
Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.
NOW what did I do?
Screwed up my leg again. My knee, more specifically. I was just walking down the hall (because apparently all my injuries happen when I’m just walking like a normal human being) and got this super sharp pain right below my knee cap. Now my knee feels super unstable and it hurts to walk.
Again.
FUCK.
I’m not sure what I did, but here we go again I guess.
Edit: now that it’s been a day or so, this actually feels like that runner’s knee I had in my other leg last year. That pain was on the outside of my knee, this is in the middle/lower part of my knee, but apparently that’s where runner’s knee pain is most common.
Edit again: the more I walk on it, the better it feels. Which is weird. BUT I’LL TAKE IT. I hope the pain completely goes away soon, ‘cause there’s no way in hell I’m doing another year of this “pain while walking” nonsense.
Edit yet again: now the pain’s completely gone. Dafuq.
How To Get Over a Leg Injury: Claudia Mahler Style
Step 1: Give injured leg two days of rest.
Step 2: Continue to walk 15 miles a day on injured leg, ignoring pain that is actually quite severe.
Step 3: Shun doctors.
Step 4: Shun the pain. Walk through it.
Step 5: Occasionally push it too far and re-injure it a little bit.
Step 6: Repeat steps 2 through 5.
Step 7: It gets better (mostly?) eventually, so be proud of your completely irresponsible healing technique.
HEY LEG:
GET BETTER
Sweet dreams are made of bees / holy shit, that’s a lot of bees
Mom: You should eat more protein; it might help your leg heal faster.
Me: Okay! *eats entire bag of cheese*
Me: Leg, why aren’t you better?
Leg: …
Me: Do…do you need more cheese?
Leg: …
Me: You probably need more cheese.
Leg: Maybe you could stop pounding me into the pavement for four hours every day, that might help me feel better.
Me: *buys more cheese after 15-mile walk*
I…I don’t do well with moderation.
MY STUPID LEG IS STUPID
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.
I hurt my leg again. Not nearly as badly as the first time, but I can definitely tell this is going to be a setback.
I was out walking this afternoon and, admittedly, was pushing things a bit, trying to get back to my old speed. Everything was going fine and then suddenly I felt this weird sensation followed by immediate sharp pain in the exact same part of my leg as the original injury.
Unlike the first time I hurt it, the pain subsided quite rapidly (the first time it just kept hurting VERY BADLY as I walked). However, I could feel mild pain and a lot of discomfort as I kept going.
That happened at like mile eight; I was able to finish the 15-mile walk, though my speed freaking tanked because I didn’t want to screw things up any more than I already had.
So yeah. This is incredibly frustrating. I felt like I was really making progress and things were finally starting to get back to normal…and now, just by walking, I manage to screw it up again.
Really, I shouldn’t complain too much as it’s definitely not as bad as it was the first time (and honestly, all it’s doing is knocking my speed back down to the point where it doesn’t hurt)…but I’m going to complain a little, because DAMMIT JUST HEAL ALREADY.
I CAN RUN!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So the weather in Moscow today sucked (rain). I went to the UI Rec Center to do my walking because even four hours on a treadmill beats walking in rain.
I did 13 miles walking, and as I was doing so, I realized two things:
1. I had the treadmill set on 0 incline. Ever since I got hurt back in August, I’ve had to have the treadmill set at least at 1.5 incline, because this injury, whatever it is, is strange as hell, and a slightly inclined treadmill always resulted in less pain than a “flat” one. Not today. The flat felt good.
2. In fact, there was no pain. At all. I still get twinges every once in a while, especially when walking, but not today. No pain.
So I decided to stop the treadmill at 13 miles, change my pedometer stride from “walk” to “run,” and gave running a shot.
And it worked! Nothing broke/snapped/died. I ran two miles before deciding to stop before anything did break/snap/die.
In fact, as I sit here writing this, I’m pretty sure every part of my body except my injured leg is sore (probably from trying to compensate for it while running, haha).
So there’s that.
I’m going to try to take it slow—which is really difficult for me—but I will work back up to 10k. I will do more half marathons.
I will do my marathon.
Injury Update: One Month Later
So it’s been a month since I busted up my leg/knee/whatever. It still hurts and seems to hurt the most when I do seemingly benign things like stand a little bit different than normal or straighten my leg all the way out when I lay down or really weird stuff like that.
Walking is a very slow, tedious, fear-inducing process still. I have no idea what I did to it (doctors are for SQUARES), so I don’t know what might hurt it again (or just make it worse).
I guess I’ll just keep…walking? Hopefully it’ll get better on its own.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Pain is just pain leaving the body
More specifically, my leg hurts.
But if you think I’m going to let pain get in the way of my walking goal, you don’t know me.
Hell, I was peeing blood in July due to how much I was walking. Did that stop me? Hell no.
(Sorry, this injury is my life now.)
NO PAIN NO GAIN
I will make my walking goal this year.
Nothing will stop me.
No one will stop me.
Injury? Hah. I will walk through the pain.
Whatever it takes, I’ll do it.
(Sorry, I needed to self-motivate today ‘cause I feel like lazy poops.)
UUUUUUUUUUUUUUGH
My speed has freaking tanked due to whatever I did to my knee.
It’s really, really frustrating.
Sorry, too frustrated to blog.
UGUGUHGGHFHFDKHGDFKLGJFDGJDFKL
I could only do 14 miles today. I might have been able to do 15, but I didn’t want to push things too much.
It all still hurts, but if I walk really slowly and kinda wonky, I can start collecting miles.
I’m so slow, though. 3.86 MPH versus 4.90 MPH at the beginning of last week.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK.
I used to walk 30 miles a day…but then I took an arrow to the knee
Or rather, I took an “I don’t know what the hell I did, it just started randomly hurting” to the knee and now I can’t walk for shit.
Seriously. I was out walking this morning, planning just to do 20 miles because we were going to drive up to Coeur d’Alene this afternoon, and around mile 10 my right knee kind of started to twinge. Every muscle/joint/tendon/ligament/fiber in my lower body has hurt at some point on these long walks, so I kept going. By mile 12, it hurt so badly I was actually crying. Managed to hobble 4 more miles back into town and called my mom to pick me up at Winco.
I have no idea what I did, but it hurts to walk and everything is terrible. And I can’t go to a doctor or Quick Care or anything ‘cause I don’t have insurance in the States anymore.
Edit 1: alright, so it doesn’t actually seem like I hurt my knee. It’s seeming more like it’s a quad muscle thing or a connective tissue thing, though the symptoms I have aren’t really a great match to anything I can find on the internet. Maybe a quad strain or sprain? Maybe a tear? Maybe I screwed up the connective tissue?
I’ll take a day or so off. Maybe two. Then I’ll try a walk again.
UGH.
Edit 2: man, this turned into a thing.
Eigenblogger 