Monday, June 18, 2012

Doctor's Appointment


I ended up making a doctor’s appointment last week for my leg/ knee. They weren’t able to get me in until Thursday, but hey, at least it was better than the available appointments I was seeing online (I think the first one might have been around July 12th).

I have to say, it went better than I thought it would. I was slightly (okay, more than slightly, I was extremely) worried that they would tell me that I needed to stop running. I figured that they probably wouldn’t know much about running injuries and thought they’d just say, ‘if it hurts, stop’. Thankfully my doctor knows I have been training (she is a U of M grad and actually has been super sweet and helpful with everything, so I don’t know why I doubt her, I guess it must be my lack of confidence in doctors in general because of my past). She told me that it was probably IT Band Syndrome (which one of my friend’s had mentioned to me when I told her my symptoms a few weeks ago). Since I didn’t have a specific injury (like a tendon popping or bruises or anything like that), she thinks that it is just my IT Band. She gave me a few suggestions – run on softer surface (she thought that the sidewalk and hard concrete of the street was irritating my IT Band), she gave me a knee brace (more of like a compression wrap that I can try to see if it helps), a few exercises and stretches that can help, and said to listen to my body (don’t do more than I can handle – if it hurts, slow down or stop).

I have talked to some of my friends (I have some great ones J ) and I have received some additional suggestions. The main suggestion was FOAM ROLL. Thankfully I already have a foam roller. I really like foam rolling, but I have to admit, before this I was doing it every so often, but not on a consistent basis. Now that people have really been pushing it (and people that know what they are talking about – like doctors in physical therapy), I am really trying to do it like it is my job J [like at least three times a day]. Also, another suggestion was to ice. So again, I am trying to do that a lot more as well [like at least twice a day].

Technically I still have about 2.5 months till my race, so I think I can do it. I am planning on running on the beach (on the hard, packed sand – around low tide), wear my knee brace, keep my mileage low, use ice and maybe some icy-hot, and foam roll like crazy. Like one of my friends’s said, ‘at least it isn’t August’. I should have time to get my training back up to where I would like it.  And even if I am not 100% where I would like to be, hopefully there will be more races and chances to accomplish what I would like to do.

Thank you for all of your who said prayers, sent good thoughts and vibes, emailed encouraging notes, posted on my facebook wall, etc. It has really been great to have the encouragement and love during this rough patch of my running. YOU GUYS ROCK!!

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