Check!

Several hours after going under, I heard from my parents, who heard from my surgeon that the unscrewing, sawing, drilling, and plating was successful! I have a sweet post-op xray with the new fancy hardware store, but don’t have it on a disc yet so that will have to wait! In the mean time, check out the new hospital space suit/body heaters:

Yeah… talk about instant birth control right there. They’re like hospital gowns with a vacuum hose attached, pumping in hot (or cool) air. Makes you look like the Michelin Man. Also made me feel like I was sitting in a sauna, so had to turn that bad boy down. Of course the hair net is always super attractive.

What I remember before surgery is all the prep, anti-bacterializing my hip, and taking out my contacts. I remember saying goodbye to my parents and the nurses wheeling me into the OR, and I remember them transferring me to the operating table. I don’t remember them at all putting the mask with anesthesia on me, and I definitely don’t remember doing the backwards countdown or anything else until I woke up 3 minutes 6 hours later! Kind of a bummer… that back words countdown and knock-out moment was kind of my favorite part.

Step #2: Make it out of the hospital

Check! 

(Last week at the clinic with pneumonia.) With minor complications. They kept me a day longer than intended due to not quite hitting the pain management marks on schedule. Then, my second night I ended up spiking a fever of 101.5, but was freezing with goosebumps, and was super congested. You might remember that I got pneumonia the week before surgery – brilliant timing, right? – so they were concerned about a reoccurrence of that. After being intubated and staying in the hospital, it’s apparently quite easy to get pneumonia. Let’s not do that!! Several PT sessions in “the gym” (full of stairs, beds, curbs, and all the other foreseeable obstacles one could encounter), a long check-out list with a bag full of drugs, and they sent me on my way! I’m staying at my mom’s house for about a week, or until I can drive again, whichever comes first.

Step #3: Physical Therapy

half check…

I’m trying to channel my inner JuliaGoBigGreen here. This stuff is hard! Knowing me, I of course saved my last big leg workout for the morning-of. (Side: my friend at the gym told me he got hell from his surgeon for running the morning of… told me you bleed a lot more. Dr. Van or anyone else… true? BS?) Anyways, did my last big legs workout and hit my heaviest squat to date. Two days later, my PT is helping me to do a simple [body weight] leg lift. Oh my GOODNESS is that ever frustrating when something so simple feels so unbelievably hard!!

The exercises she has me doing are the same ones a patient would do after a total hip replacement… something I’m trying to avoid as long as possible! I am doing (1) quadricep contractions (thigh squeezes), (2) gluteal contractions (butt squeezes), (3) heel slides (photo left, just sliding the heel up towards the butt and back down), (4) straight leg raise (sounds so easy, and this is by far the hardest!), (5) abduction / adduction (photo right, sliding the heel out away from the body and back in), and (6) short arc quads (place a can or rolled up towel under knee, try to raise foot off ground… second hardest).

I have to keep reminding myself that they did cut through all these muscles along the lateral side of my leg, and had to sew them back together. It’s not just the bone that needs to heal, but also a ton of muscles! I do these 2x per day, and trust me… it feels like a “workout.” So funny to think that!

Step #4: Ride power-cart at Target

check!

You bet I did… as a kid I always wanted to ride the power chairs whenever we went to target or Costco or something. You know what? They go like a quarter of a mile an hour and make you feel bad for holding everyone else up. Not all it’s cracked up to be.

What I really want is one of those ride on Power Wheels Fisher Price cars… hahha let’s go with the Dune Racer:

Here’s a “friday confession” for you – I used to babysit triplets that lived across the street from me, and they had this ride on Jeep. I’d always convince the boys that they wanted to ride their scooters or something so I could ride the Jeep. And it did go faster than .25 mph.

Step #5: Get off meds and DRIVE!

Next Friday.

Hopefully! I can’t drive until I’m off all narcotics (vicodin, oxycontin, roxicodone), and until I have the follow-up appointment with my doctor on December 23rd. That’s just next Friday! Being independent is something that has always been important to me, and obviously being on crutches there are a lot of things I simply can’t do because I don’t have two hands. Carry soup to the table? Nope. Reach anything out of an upper cabinet? Nope (oh wait, I couldn’t do that anyways…). So it’s going to be quite a while before I can do any of that two-handed stuff, since I’m estimated to be on crutches for the next six weeks. BUT I would sure as $#!& like to be able to drive myself to PT. What else is this handicapped parking tag good for?

So chicos… I made it. It wouldn’t have been without my amazing medical team, and my supreme friend/family support squad! Your prayers, texts, emails and facebook messages of votes of confidence truly mean the world to me. You are all angels, in every sense of the word.

-E

1. Sick chick.

And I don’t mean sick in the way cool / sick / tight / wicked / sweet / dope / fresh / anything that doesn’t actually mean “awesome”  but yet is somehow used interchangeably. Between last Wednesday (on my birthday. Not sweet, nor dope.) and this Monday, my temperature was bobbing between 102.5 and 100.7. What started out as a Dx of strep throat turned to a prescription for amoxicillin that wasn’t making me feel any better (or cooler). Turns out that I had pneumonia, which may or may not have been due to the strep that was or was not even there to begin with. So I’ve spent a lot of time here:

Influenza test -> Strep test -> cute note from “Kathryn” en español!

By the fireplace, under the covers, in the dark. (Creeper.)

Thankfully, since going back to the clinic on Monday and confirming pneumonia with the chest x-rays, they switched me to levoflaxacin and I’m feeling 97% better. My grandma has had pneumonia so many times and I never had any idea how miserable she felt!! It was I imagine a collapsed lung feels like. (My surgeon would not have been impressed with that come Wednesday….)

2. Five days until they cut my leg off.

Yes, the countdown is going strong. With all this sick business over the last week, I can tell you I was pissed bummed about missing gym time. And I have no problem fully admitting to hitting the gym the second my doctor said “I guess if you’re feeling bett…..” I have been asked multiple times by several friends:

You just can’t give it a rest, can you?!

Not today my friend. And I will tell you what… when you have two months of ass-to-couch time staring you down, you can make whatever decision you want concerning your last five days. But as long as I have been given the green light to exercise, and am not by any chance contagious, I will sweat it out until the very last possible minute.

3. I am actually scared to death for surgery.

Sure, it’s easy to look brave behind words… to say well, you can’t always chose the cards you’re dealt and there’s no way around it, so let’s do this thing! Slowly over this last week, the reality of the lifestyle changes I’m about to face has really started to set in. We have such a small amount of snow right now here in Minneapolis, and I know it’s only a matter of time before mother nature decides to unload 2 feet on us. Thinking about crutching out to my car and trying to scrape it off… thinking about crutching downstairs to/from my apartment… thinking about how the DUCK do I carry a coffee cup!?!?! All hitting the fan.

This is a rough estimate of the procedure they are doing… which I wrote more about in this post.

The wedge that you can see gets removed, leaving a brand new, fresh surface that needs to heal together. Along with the bone healing around the screws. And plate running along the lateral side of the femur. Not to mention there is a big unpredictable tumor chunk that has, until this point, proven to do whatever the heck it wants…

It never asked me if I liked the question “Why do you walk with a limp?” (No.) It never asked me if I wanted to run just one last marathon. (I started my list when I was 10.) It never asked me how I felt about crutches when it’s -20°, icy, and snowing. (Can I take coffee with me? No? Ok, angry.) It never asked me if ever wanted to sleep on my left side again. (How about just through the night?) It never asked me how I felt being left out of any/all plyometrics. (Like I’m defective.) It never asked me how it feels to explain what fibrous dysplasia is 100billion times and have every single person you just explained it to look at you and still not get it. (#GTFOH)

4. I feel super selfish.

Reread last paragraph. I can think of an equal 100billion ways it could probably be worse.

5. The Hand Crank…

- Is really kind of harder than you’d think.
- Burns like 1/3rd of the calories you can burn while running, and still feels kind of harder than you’d think.
- Is quite possibly more boring than pool running…
- Unless you find a good song that you can get krunk to crank to… in which case it might not be so bad.
- I’m going to need a lot of new songs on my iPod.
- Is kind of lonely, since there are only two in the gym (attitude correction: there are two in the gym!) and I don’t see anyone else on them.
- Which may be a blessing in disguise because I’ll never have to wait for it.
- Unless it snows two feet, in which case my butt ain’t gettin to the gym in the first place.
- Mmmm yep, still waiting for that attitude / perspective / expectations adjustment.

And that my chicostix… is about five things more than I’ve ‘fessed up to until today. And it does feel BETTER. Especially number 4. It’s good to get things off your chest….

#feelsgoodman

(1000 bonus points for the right reference.)

Reader Qs: Your turn!

-E

Days until….

• My birthday!!: 1 day
• My new HOUSE!!!!: 2 days
• My best friend finally home from 6 months in Mérida, Venezuela: 3 days
• First two UMN gymnastics meets: 5 days, and 12 days
• I get to see my padre: 14 days
• SURGERY!! Can I get an aaaaamen?!: 15 days
• Christmas: 26 days (yikes!! better get to shoppin…)
• Post-op follow up appointment: 30 days
• Start of 2012: 33 days
• Possible last day of crutches? (hopefully earlier!!): 57 days (ayyye.)

Meanwhile… I think it’s about time to check in with my goals from 2011, and start thinking ahead to 2012!

Reader Qs:

Are you currently “counting down” to anything? How are you doing on your 2011 goals?

-E

Alternate title: “they’re cutting my leg off, taking a cheese wedge slice out, and putting me back together.”

Alternate alternate title: “about damn time.”

Enough emails have come in that I thought it was time for a bit of clarification. (FIRST clarification!! NO. They’re not amputating my leg. )

Depending on how long you’ve been around DrTriRunner, you may have all // only bits and pieces // or none of my past medical history. I definitely don’t expect anyone to click on each of these links and read the entire posts, but it has ALL been documented. And what a trip for me to go back and read through them! Here is the Cliff Notes version of this entire journey since 2008…

• Sophomore year of college – was living in Boston, MA – running xc – 4 marathons under my belt and registered for #5, Boston, the following April.
• October 22nd, 2008 - Found out I have fibrous dysplasia (FD). Found out my femoral neck was fractured 2/3rds of the way through. Hahha love my title for this one: “Adam and Eve Played Me.”
• November 3rd, 2008 – Surgery was discussed with treatment team in Boston. Option 1: a surgery with a shorter rehab and greater chance of returning to running, but not necessarily a “long term fix”. Option 2: surgery with a longer rehab, lesser chance of running again, but possibly more permanent. I was still hopeful that surgery would not happen at all! If I did, it would be at home in Minneapolis over Christmas break.
• December 12th, 2008 – Written on the flight home to Minneapolis. Still praying that I wouldn’t need surgery.
• December 13th, 2008 – Post pre-op appointment, probably written in tears. I remember how devastated I was to find out I needed surgery!! Decided on option 1 with the quicker rehab and better chances of being an “athlete” again.
• December 17th, 2008 – Two days post-op. Hit heavy by Vistaril so I’m not sure how coherent that post was. Lots of cute pictures of IVs being pulled out and “learning to crutch.”
• December 21st, 2008 – Funny.. I remember being AMPED because I got to SHOVEL SNOW. Weight bearing activity baby!! It’s all about the little steps.
• December 21st, 2008 – One week post-op report. Able to use the stationary bike (next to no resistance) with minimal pain.
• December 31st, 2008 – Two weeks post-op. Able to swim and pool run once the incision had healed. I remember being amazed at how quickly [I thought] progress was happening…
• January 25th, 2009 – First post-op follow up appointment, which led to me being…
• February 6th, 2009 – Cleared to run!! Ohhh that joyous letter. I hung it up on my dorm room wall. Serious. Keep in mind – this was only cleared to run 2 x 10 minutes every other day. Although I’m pretty sure on that day that I had made up: I was still running Boston 09…
• March 10th, 2009 – Progress was going well..? By March 10th, I was up to a 10K at 7:46 avg per mile. And that was my easy pace back then.
• March 14th, 2009 – A memorable 9 miler doing the last part of the Boston course backwards, with my best friend riding along on her bike. Progress, but with the marathon a little over a month from then, that should have been telling me something about “race readiness”…
• April 20th, 2009 – 113th Annual Boston Marathon. Dumb decisions were made, and lessons were learned. There’s a reason I didn’t post from April until August… Moved back to Minneapolis in the mean time and transfered back to the University of Minnesota.
• August 15th, 2009 – [Mostly] Successfully trained for 2009 Twin Cities Marathon! Had a wonderful training group and felt fast and strong for pretty much all of training. Dropped mileage probably 25% to 30% from pre-surgery averages. Did the first 20 miler of the training block that day. I wrote in this post that the recovery process had felt “slow” … looking back, doing a 20 miler eight months after having a major hip surgery doesn’t really sound that slow…?
• September 5th, 2009 – Did my last triathlon of the summer. Froze my ass off on the bike. Took 2nd in my AG and ?? overall. I remember not being able to feel anything knee down until the last mile of the run!
• September 10th, 2009 – Did the double header of the Victory Memorial 10K/5K. Ran a slower than usual 10K and used the 5K as a cool down… but somehow took 2nd and 1st AG in each. So in my mind… I’m sure that meant recovery was on schedule, right? I also remember that during this photo <– right before the 10K start, I was thinking my hip felt a little “off.” #SOML.
• September 24th, 2009 – Spent the day at the hospital in radiology. That little “off” feeling quickly returned to the same feelings I was having pre-surgery. I knew something was up, and that something was likely no good… At this point I was trained up to the 4th 20 miler of the 2009 Twin Cities Marathon.
• September 25th, 2009 – That rainy, dreary photo at the start of the post set the stage for what was to come. I got a phone call from my doctor that morning saying the images taken the day prior showed positive for a fracture. The same fracture line in my femoral neck that was there way back in October of 2008. Now the question was, did it ever really heal, or did it recently refracture? Was it a matter of the intensity, distance, the fibrous dysplasia, or all three combined?
• October 2nd, 2009 – Pulled out of the Twin Cities marathon. My mom and I watched and cheered on my fellow teammates and training partners, and it was h.a.r.d. I want to say I was just excited for them and the culmination of the many miles put into this race, but the honest thoughts in my mind were how badly I wanted to be out there racing. Back on a no-running, non-weight bearing XT prescription.
• 
• October 30th, 2009 – After great debate, my insurance finally cleared a bone growth stimulator, which I used 30 minutes every day. I wrote that it was a “gift from my orthopedic Santa.”
• November 15h, 2009 – Somewhere in here I was cleared to run again. By the 15th I had done three half hour runs, all at easy pace, indoors on the dreadmill.
• All of 2010 – Essentially a year with a shitton of cross training. Never got back to the “old normal” running mileage from pre-surgery days, which I justified because I was focusing more on triathlon. Lots of swimming and biking, and “medium” amounts of running. March 17th took 3rd overall in the Get Lucky 7K. Finished behind Jenny Wilcox and Amy Lyons, so I was happy to be in their speedy company. Raced New Bri Tri on June 5th and Manitou on June 13th - had an off race in New Brighton, but Manitou went well and took 2nd. Played a hard core game of road kill during the run and passed 68 people! That felt good, but also remember my left lower leg hurting like $#!& after the race.
• July 7th, 2010 – Sure enough.. tibial stress fracture. A compensation injury from having a left leg that is one half inch shorter than the right. Was SO eƒƒing fed up with all these injuries creeping in due to my hip issue, but humbled at the same time that even on my worst days, I still had so much to be thankful for. Posted a bible passage that day: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer.” – Romans 12:12. Important one to remember… every. single. day.
• September 22nd, 2010 – Started hitting the weights a little harder, thanks to my wonderful coach at the time, Mrs. Jodi Jones. Tibia had plans of it’s own and was taking its sweet damn time to heal. (read: it wasn’t…)
• October & November 2010 – Ran the Monster Dash half marathon at the end of October as a “fun run” but didn’t race it. Got hit by a truck mono for over a month and really impacted training and fitness. From that point until now, I’ve honestly never run over 30 mpw.
• January through August 2011 – stayed between 10 and 20 mpw, but running felt like it was on a slow decline. On April 22nd I %!&@#*> in a Friday Confessional that “running hated me”, and my body was definitely feeling that. Stuck with the cross training and strength, minimal swimming (oops!) and a LOT of biking. Put in more miles on the QRoo this summer than ever before.
• August through October 2011 – The slow decline turned to big freaking decline, and there were days when I felt like I could barely put weight on my left leg at all. Got my butt back in to see my treatment team, and we knew we needed to take action. My fracture from way back in October of 2008 was STILL not healed – something called a non-union fracture. It had never healed. A second surgery was definitely in order and it was just a matter of determining what the procedure would be, who would do the surgery, and when would be the right time.
• October through now 2011 - continued to go all over for treatment. MRIs, injections, cortisone, x-rays, CTs, you name it.

So… bringing us to the present – we finally have come to the conclusion that the best surgical procedure is a “valgus producing sub-trochanteric femoral osteotomy” … ironically, the same “option #2″ that was recommended (and decided against) way back in 2008. The option with a longer recovery time and a lesser chance of returning to running. I’m scheduled to go under the knife on December 14th, 2011 – exactly one day short of three years after my first surgery. And I’m am so excited to get. this. over. with.

In terms of outcomes for…

• time in hospital
• time on crutches
• rehab  time
• prospects for returning to running
• prospects for returning to distance running
• prospects for returning to racing

… a lot of that is still up in the air. It would be awesome if my recovery went as quickly as the first surgery, but that will be a day-by-day process. And covered in a post to come!

Aaaahhhhhh. I feel better. You might not if you read that whole thing… but I give you mad props if you made it all the way through.

This post is beyond long enough, but I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed. (And it was a good project I could do while in a post-turkey coma!) The prayers and good wishes many of you have sent this way, and the support you all provide? You all are my angels, and on this day of thanksgiving, I want to let you know how THANKFUL I am for all of you.

Reader Qs:

Have you ever dealt with an ongoing injury or illness? How did it affect your training/racing/life, and how do you deal with it now? Did you have a good thanksgiving, and what is your favorite kind of pie?

Happy thanksgiving!!

-Erika

Started my Thursday with this:

Top L: Disinfecting. Keepin’ it PG. Top R: Needle going into the hip joint. If you enlarge the photo, you can see the cointrast running through the joint. Bottom center: Closer up – doctor explaining the procedure. The two screws you see are two of these three. The third one is directly behind the upper one. Haha my first reaction was “um… isn’t there supposed to be one more in there?” The thing that looks like a little sperm swimming into the joint is actually the head of the needle. On the bone. ♪ Blue on Black ♪

Post injection, they wanted me to go for a test run. So I did. And because I was afraid my leg might fall off 4 miles from home, I brought my phone.

And in a moment of delirium… I made you a video. Fair warning – this might leave you feeling like you just watched the Blaire Witch Project. It made me dizzy!! This would have been much easier taken with a Go Pro HD Camera… just sayin.

“Hey hunnies…”

Ohhhh wow.

If you’ve ever wondered what a “friend” blogger sounds like in real life? Here you go. This is me! Susan – do I actually sound like this in conversation? I [hopefully] promise I’m not that easily distracted in person. Example: (46 sec.) ”That’s a pretty tree.” Start a new sentence… (49 sec.) “That’s a pretty house!!” Hahah and I keep talking about how Minneapolis is really nice in the fall. (Note that I stated nothing about months December through March.) And how I’m going to get hit by a car.

Well I didn’t get hit by a car, and my leg didn’t fall off. Success! And I DID get a longer run than I thought … that’s what I get for leaving the Garmin at home! Good ol’ fashioned Gmaps Pedometer. 7.11 miles in 57 minutes.

The reason I haven’t brought any of this up yet (which you may or may not have caught in the video) is that I just don’t see any need to jump the gun. There are too many uncertainties right now (which surgical procedure, when the surgery will actually happen, the extent of the labral tear, etc.) to go into too much detail. But I also didn’t want to wait until the day before surgery, and then say… SURPRISE!! And I will say it has been hard to avoid the subject – it’s been on my mind. A lot!! Will keep everyone updated, but will hopefully also maintain the upbeat attitude of Dr.TriRunner going strong.

Reader Qs:

Have any of the readers out there ever had a labral tear? What was surgery and recovery like? Where was your tear? Where did you have surgery? While were talking about surgery – give me anything! What was the injury, what was the rehab, and how long was it before you were back to doin’ you?

-E

On the [very late] bus on the way to school [in the rain] I got a call from my doctor with the results of yesterdays tests. (Haha.. am I painting enough of a dramatic picture here? Ok.. I’ll cut it..) The bone scan had shown “abnormal activity” in my left hip, and PET/CT showed that there was indeed a fracture in the inferior femoral neck. Basically right in the same place it was almost exactly a year ago (“last fateful run”… Sept. 29th, 2008). I am thinking that the fracture healed after surgery with all that rehab time, but that in amping up my mileage for this marathon (Twin Cities.. 9 days from today) I refractured it. 

(Rehab post-surgery: December, 2008)

Given my medical history and the fact that I have fibrous dysplasia.. am I surprised? Yes and no. I thought the fracture would have for sure healed, but now that I think about it, when you have fibrous dysplasia, it is essentially scar tissue where it’s supposed to be bone. So if it’s not “real bone”.. then how can it generate new bone growth if there is no “bone” there to begin with? Am I making sense? 

So I had all of this gloomy glorious day to sit and dwell contemplate. What am I going to do from here? What about the marathon? If there’s no marathon.. can I still run.. at all? Can the severity of the fracture be quantified? Is it as bad as last time? It doesn’t feel as bad as last time… What about the marathon? What about cross-training – is that still OK? Am I going to be back on crutches? How long will this take to heal? And.. what about the effin’ marathon!?!

My doctor is pretty amazing.. no doubt about that. I would definitely recommend him to anyone in the TC area who is dealing with an athletic injury. If you want his name, I can definitely pass it on to you, but I’m not sure if he would want his name publicly included in this so I will just leave it at that. Anyways, being the amazing doctor that he is, I have his phone number, his email, I see him at my restaurant, and he said I could call with any questions I had. Seeing as that questions were ample, I wrote down all the valid ones, and called him after class. (Just about 15 minutes ago actually.. I am posting again via public transportation – the 114 bus.)

Regarding the “Will it ever heal?” question, he wanted to consult with a doctor who specialized in fibrous dysplasia before giving me an answer. I really appreciate that, because that plays a huge role in what I decide to do about the marathon. If the answer is “no”, then that means I will probably not be able to ever DO another marathon, in which case I might just say eff that, and make TC my last. If the answer is a definite “yes”, and the prognosis is that I will be able to still competitive run distance, then I would probably hold off on TC.

My question about “How severe is the fracture? Is it as bad as last time?” had an answer.. and that one was at least positive. The answer is no, at least not right now. Last year I was given crutches.. I was limping hard core.. it was bad. And I knew that. The fracture doesn’t at all feel like it did then, and just looking at the scans, the doctor was able to say that “this time”.. it isn’t “as bad”. 

(edit: location change – I’m off the bus, at home, and about 4.5 hours out from when I started this post.. went over to my mom’s house.)

And finally, “So what about the marathon?” All sorts of crazy illogical thoughts have gone through my mind about that today, from “of course you can’t run it” to “there’s no way I put all that effort in for nothing…” Up until just a little bit ago, my head was not even able to make one concrete thought and stick with it for more than a minute. Talking to my mom really helped, and so did talking to the doctor. At the current moment, my train of thought is somewhere along the lines of this: I will not run at all right now until race day. I will run TC, but not race it. After that, no running the fracture heals. (That is if it CAN heal.) 

I know I’m going to get mixed reactions to this one.. some people will say that that’s being ridiculous – what good can running the marathon do? It will only set you back. Other people might agree.. I guess just depending on your background, your opinion will be different. Like I said though, that is just my CURRENT thought.. and my current thoughts have been changing like every 5 minutes so nothing is set in stone here, and I’m not holding myself to anything. Twin Cities marathon is 9 days away, and I’m sure I will have “made” 25 different “decisions” between now and then. 

Sorry to be the lil downer here.. as I’m sure you know, I wish I could be posting with GOOD NEWS and happy faces. All I can do at this point is count my blessings, try my best to keep a solid head on my shoulders, and live the life that I have been given to the fullest. 

When I was doing core at the gym today, I was thinking about this post. There was so much that I wanted to include, but to keep it manageable I’m going to split it into two. In my next post, I really want to put together a little timeline of my running history, and how this injury has come into play. More so for myself, but I have gotten a few comments from newer readers who didn’t know I pretty much went through this last year. I think it would also be good to have a little bit of my running history and background so no assumptions are made.. it’s not like this is an overuse injury from suddenly jumping on the I-need-to-do-a-marathon-or-my-life-isn’t-complete-bandwagon (I think that pretty much sums up how I feel about THAT one…). Fibrous dysplasia is a genetic condition you are BORN with, and is something that is beyond my control. A little education goes a long way, and I feel like I could lend a little insight to a couple (or one?) of anonymous commenters. 

Anyways, it’s only 10:00.. it’s Friday night.. and I’m on the couch. Lame, but I’m pulling the get-out-of-jail-free card and saying I’ve had a pretty long day. Week. I’m going to watch the news through the sports and then take the advantage of the night and just crash early. Sleep is super important in recovery, and that’s an easy thing to forget.

(knocked out post surgery – December 2008. LOL I slept like 15 hours a day for like 2 weeks.. thankk you pain meds.)

Truly, I love you guys. Thank you for your support, and yes, your sympathy. I’m a big girl.. I can handle it.

G’night to all.

-E

(University of MN Fairview Hospital. photo credit!)

Don’t get me wrong – I am so thankful for my support network: my family, my friends, my teammates, here on the blog.. you guys are all amazing. I think I struggle with even talking about my hip/health problems because that means I’m admitting that there is something wrong there, and that potentially it could be a big deal.

But anyways, yep – the hip. Again. MAYBE. 

I have been experiencing some discomfort/pain/feelings that I know shouldn’t really be there for about a month now. I have an amazing doctor who is the chairman of the sports medicine department at University of Minnesota Fairview. He is also the physician for all of our athletes, and I definitely know I am in good hands. On Tuesday I had xrays done, which were basically inconclusive. Good news is my pins are all still in place… for a while I got myself thinking “what if they’re poking through the other side of the bone!?!”

Today I had lab work at 1:00, injections at 2:00, part 1 of a bone scan at 2:10, a ct scan at 2:40, and part 2 of the bone scan at 4:00. That was all I was scheduled for today, but they could see some “abnormal activity” in the bone scan, so then I went in for a combo PET/CT scan. It was actually really relaxing.. I fell asleep on the table! My only battle wound for the day are a blown vein in my left arm, and a huge blood pool under the surface of the skin on my left hand. I can’t blame them… I have some tiny freaking veins. 

My doctor wanted another doctor to read the scans.. and he said he’d call me within 48 hours, so hopefully then I will have a better idea of what is going on. My plan is to still run Twin Cities Marathon, although ultimately if I’m putting myself at risk of needing another surgery or fracturing something again, I will listen to the advice of my doctor for sure.

Anyways.. just wanted to keep you guys in the loop. I don’t like feeling like I’m hiding something! And as much as the “sympathy” is something that is hard for me to deal with, I am not too big to ask for prayers and thoughts. I really appreciate all the support I have found in you guys in the past, and I know it’ll be there in the future.

I’m off for a quick ride with some of the team.. will be good to clear my head. Be back soon!

-E

Hard to believe, but Twin Cities Marathon is only 7 weeks away! And just now as I wrote that.. I said WTH. 7 weeks is a lonnng time. Honestly though, I know it’s going to fly. My schedule for the next month is crazy busy. I’m traveling the next three weekends, and then school starts up right after that! 

What really prompted this post was this morning’s run – I did the first 20 miler of this training period. If you haven’t read my blog before, I’ll fill you in pretty quickly: in December I had 3 pins put in my hip, and then in April I got hit by a car while running. SO… after PT and rehab I’ve pretty much had to start from scratch with my running. I went from being a 3:19 marathoner to a maybe-I-should-only-do-3 runner pretty quickly.

the pins of doom

With caution and guidance from my medical team, I built back up. Slow as the process was, it was doable. My surgeons told me I could run again. That I can. What they didn’t make any promises about was racing, and that brings me to where I am right now. 

Initially, I had some pretty high hopes from TCM. Ultimately I want to run a sub 3 some day, but for Twin Cities I was thinking I’d shoot for more like a 3:15 or 3:10. Then surgery happened and a car happened and I found myself needing to reevaluate. Right now, I would be stoked to pull a 3:19 again. For today’s 20 miler I held an 8 minute pace (which would be like a 3:30 marathon) but if I’m honest with myself, I don’t know if I could have gone a whole lot faster. Not to mention, I would have still had a 10K to do to finish. 

My “plan” thus far for October 4th is to line up with the 3:20 pace group. If I feel better than that at the half, I’ll take off. If I feel like I need to pull back, I’ll pull back. The human body is an amazing thing even without running 26.2 miles, so the fact that it will even still let me do that with three pins in my hip is truly a blessing. I will let my body dictate the rest. 

So I guess my point of this whole thing is that it’s OK to change your goals. It’s OK to reassess plan. For anyone who is more towards the type-A side of the spectrum (coughMEcough) this can sometimes be a difficult notion to accept. It’s either black or white, right or wrong. I like to know the schedule ahead of time, and I want to stick to that schedule damnit, so don’t go changing the game plan! Hahha honestly though… it does get better. Sometimes I need to force myself to be flexible, and this is one of those times. Ya feel me?

So I leave you here my friends. Gotta work dinner tonight, but just a short shift. I’m going to try and get a nap here before that. For any readers that are still around.. I know a lot of you are runners – what do you have on your race calendar? I’ll try and post mine soon – I have a lot coming up! Trying to fit in whatever I can before my birthday.. ie before I move up into the next age group!

-E

P.S. My dad visited! And I’m going out to see him two weekends from now. Here’s an update on our tat’s

*ETA* Run To The Finish is probably the greatest. I hope I can do something like this on MY birthday!!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning, and ERIKA RAN – the first day.

- Genisis 1

Comrades, the day has finally come – I HAVE OFFICIALLY BEEN CLEARED TO RETURN TO RUNNING. 

That would be the legit note from señor Dr. Denis Clohisy at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and I have also been cleared by dear Dr. Millis here in Boston, as well as my physical therapist (who I haven’t talked a lot about, but he’s amazing too ), Ian.

Now let’s be clear on some things… “Return to running” does not mean return to where I was at when I stopped. It does also not mean intervals, or tempos, or 400 repeats on the track. It does not mean that in 10 weeks I will be toeing the line at Boston, no matter how badly I want to/how much I think I “could”/how many times I look over at this posted on my wall next to my desk:

Running Boston THIS YEAR is out. You better believe I’m keeping my number though.. because while you can “defer” your time for a second year, you can’t “defer” your payment, and that is $110 I will not be getting back. More than the money though, being able to run, but not being able to RUN, is going to kill me. It already is. Going to watch is going to be ridiculously hard, but there is no way I’m not going. I have two people from home that are flying out here to run, as well as 3 friends from here that are running it this year too. I will be there to support them for sure.

While the news that I get to run again is honestly the best thing I’ve heard since, “Hi, this is Marathon Sports. Your Asics just came in…” it did come with some setbacks. (Oh wait.. so did the Asics situation. Pink? Really? The website said RED.)

Hearing I can run? I’m ecstatic. Thrilled. Elated. Overjoyed. Over the moon. Top of the world. I don’t know how many ways I can say it.. but it couldn’t make me happier. EXCEPT.. I was/am scared. So scared. I’m scared that despite how great my hip (/hips) feel, I’m gonna get out there, and be like, “Shit. It’s not supposed to feel like that.” That hasn’t happened yet, and I feel that with each new run I go on, that fear will dissipate,  but that fear is real. 

So what.. 5 mile? No prob? Mmm… not quite. My doctor cleared me for 10 minutes/2x per day (ideally, or just 20 minutes once). As much as I want to take what he said and be like, “Sure.. no probs.” I honestly know that it’s a bit much. Not that I don’t think I could do that, but because I don’t think I should. The coach here.. even after little stress fractures, he starts his runners out at 10 minutes, every other day. 20 minutes every day.. kinda a big step up from that. I’m sticking to every/other right now for this first week, and I’m planning on evaluating with my PT tomorrow at my appointment. 

So yes. I’m back. Lots is going on right now in my life… I have this huge “Project Lent: 2009″ thing that I’m doing.. more on that later maybe, and oh yeah, that little thing called college:

Sad story – my roomie put my absolute favorite from-home Caribou Coffee travel mug through the DISHWASHER. And the hot water melted the seal. And melted the red outside color. And now its dunzo. She offered to buy me a new one, and I bring to you:

I know I’m all “RunRoamRECYCLE”, but this is kinda overkill. It was the only one that had a solid closing though.. and I need to be able to toss it in my bag, so there you go. “Made with 28% post-consumer recycled content”. Yeah.. it says that.. plus a lot more lil recycle-happy quotes. I am ALL FOR being environmentally conscious, but I don’t like to preach. You’ll never see me wearing one of VS’s “Think Pink, Go Green” shirts. NEVER. 

Oh.. and that lil guy.. I got a new tattoo. It was kinda one of those last minute decision things.. and I’m not so sure about it now. Sorry mom. 

Love to you all, and to all a good night. GREYS!

So. Here is an altered version of those apparently promiscuous xrays I had up. This first one is from October 30th, before surgery. You might not be able to see the fracture.. but it’s there. If you look at the xray and go left of the greater trochanter, and coming about 2/3s of the way up from the bottom side. 

This is from January 16th, one month and one day after surgery. I had no idea the screws were this big! 

This next one is from the same day. This position is called “The Frog” haha for obvious reasons.

I donno about you.. maybe it grosses you out, but I think it’s pretty awesome. I am so thankful for all the amazing doctors I have been privileged to work with – Dr. Millis, Dr. Clohisy, and Dr. Troung – and then there are all the doctors I saw in the beginning who first diagnosed this problem – Dr. Corrado, Dr. Stein, and Dr. Gephart. I wonder how long I could have/would have kept running on it if Dr. Corrado hadn’t referred me to Dr. Stein. I remember his exact words and the tone of his voice – caring, but serious, “Hey kid, you know your limping? You’re gonna need to get that x-rayed before you can be cleared to run.” Thank you all times 1,000,000. 

I just sent these latest x-rays off to my surgeons at the U of MN this last week, so they should have them by now, and hopefully I can get in touch with them this Monday. I am also supposed to go in for a visit with my surgeon here in Boston for a follow-up. He went out of town last week, but he should be back this week, so hopefully I can get scheduled! My physical therapy also starts up this week – two times a week for now. I’m really excited because I know it will only make me stronger.

Pool workouts and cross training have been going well. My hip honestly feels really good. I told my dad the other day.. I seriously had forgotten what “normal” felt like. I am also really happy with the lifestyle changes that this surgery has brought about. I feel a lot more flexible these days – I feel a lot less concerned with things needing to be so black and white, or so scheduled. Take this: I had signed up for Campus Rec today at the gym.. I’ve taken a lot of the GF classes before, but not this one. Well, after we warmed up and were about 15 minutes in, the instructor said we were going to do suicides, and then go up to the track. Yo dog.. I haven’t been cleared to run yet. And even when I am cleared, it will be easy and short stuff, not suicides and sprints. Instead of thinking “shit.. this was my workout for the day. and I’m already 15 minutes in..” I showed the instructor the big ass scar on my hip, and said “I think I’m gonna have to bail for the rest of class. I haven’t been cleared to run yet..” She was fine with that obvi, and I decided to just call it a day. I have a fun spinning class tomorrow, and I can just make today a rest day. I did some core work, went home and took a shower, and headed to my roomies swim meet!

This is the diving well where I do all my pool running.

My roommate is the one in lane 6 on the far left. She is a killer swimmer.. she made the championship team as a freshman! She rocked it. <3

As far as general life stuff, I have plenty of stuff on my plate right now. We find out if we make it to round 2 of the RA apps at the end of the month, and if we get the position we’ll know by the end of February. I am also toying with the idea of being an orientation leader this summer.. which means being here, in BOSTON, this summer. I’d get to be home for a month between the end of the term and the time OL training starts.. so I donno. It pays pretty dang well, plus room and (partial) board, so it’s something to think about. Sorry about the big gap in posting, but I’ve been adjusting to life as a pre med student and all my sciences classes. I LOVE IT. Greater trochanter? Yep. I knew that one. Maxillary alveolus? Hahaha… still workin’ on it. 

Loves you,
-E 

OH OH OH! Vegetarian disciplinarian?! You left a comment on my last post. I would LOVE to answer any questions you have about Northeastern!! But the email left in your link isn’t working for me for some reason.. shoot me an email with all your questions and I’d be happy to answer! e.imhoff@homail.com