Shake Your Hips

Shake all you want. Just not the left one. 

Almost 10 days ago, I left you with my tale of being in pain and not running. 10 days later, I am still not running, but not in as much pain. 

The no pain thing is due to the good people in the pharmaceutical industry. With the previous post, my doc said 'no' to another steroid injection. He relented as my pain was not improving with pills or patches. This is both good and bad.  The good: no pain.  The bad: I'll get to. 

I got the injection two days before my MRI. It would take another three until the steroid took hold. I'm not fully pain free, but so much better. The scan was first thing in the morning on a Friday. I don't think neither he nor I expected results two hours later, as we scheduled an appointment for Monday to discuss. Still.......I got the results without full explanation. 

That, to me, was worse than not getting results. I'm 99% sure I saw the results well before my doctor did. 

Medically, I know a lot. Enough to be dangerous, so they say. 

Suffice to say the words "stress fracture" appeared. As did "complex tear of the anterior labrum".  Anyway you view it, "fracture" and "tear" sound bad. Try as I may, it was harder to believe this would have a happy ending.  That said, my psychiatrist thought it good that I wasn't as fatalistic about my chances. Though really I had been hoping against hope. 

I'd say "long story short", but.......you know........too late, while the tear is to be noted, it will heal on its own. It is the fracture that is the cause of my pain - and it's causing me new pain:  mental anguish. 

I'm not sure where on the upper image is the fracture. But the MRI images, well a few of them, were cool. 

Yeah, that's a cross-sections of my legs from below and in the middle would be my taint and twig and berries. The right leg has me semi laughing. On the left there seems to be a bone. The right? Not so much. Mind you, it is cadaver bone from my surgery 30+ years ago, but it IS there. 

So my mental anguish - I got sidetracked. No running for 4-6 weeks, though he said to expect it to be the full six. UGH.  Oh - and I have to be non-weight bearing on the left side..............for 4-6 weeks.  FML

While I didn't do my half marathon almost two weeks ago,  I am now officially out for a full marathon relay team and a full marathon on my own. All of which happen in the next 10 days to six weeks. 

I get it, but I know deep down I haven't completely processed all of this as of yet. 

Monday had me having to go out and buy crutches. It amuses me (well, kind of) that since like the civil war, crutch technology has not changed much at all. Sure, now they have metal ones, but no matter what you get, your armpits are gonna be tender for the first week or two. 

Since I have not been on crutches since that leg surgery, my life has changed a lot. It's one thing to be 27 on them, and 61. 

At 27, I had a three room apartment that was one level. I didn't really have anything taxing for food prep because well..........27. I had no animals. 

At 61, I now can no longer walk the dog. Or get the dog from daycare. I can't prep food easily. Certainly not out to the grill and back. Or carry anything of substance in the kitchen / house. Grocery shopping?  I guess I'll set up an InstaCart account. Gym bags are out, but I have a great backpack from the running group, which I wear to lug shit around. 710 joked that a fannypack is in my future, but I can assuredly tell you that he is incorrect. 

I'm also relying on him a lot. Drinks and things, he has to bring to me or at least carry for me. He's doing 100% of dog duty. And I hate asking him to do all these things. I feel like I'm not contributing. I don't like that feeling. 

As for exercise - leg day is out. Actually a lot of it is out. Not being able to bear weight makes moving weights challenging. I can ride a recumbent bike. The seats are wider and do not put as much pressure on the hips as a peleton or lifecycle. 

As for the bad about pain control. With my pain mostly gone, the receptors are not screaming at me to stay off my leg. I find myself "cheating" now and again and I have to stop that. 

Keeping in mind, I'm only 2.5 days into crutches. I've got a bunch to figure out over the next month and a half. That also said, my mind is racing trying to find a new routine, and at some point the mental aspect will creep in, but my head doc knows about that too, so he is ready if I need a call. 

My first ortho follow-up is in 10 days, so we will see how that goes. He's also going to have a doc who specializes in hips look at the scan. See, my ortho guy is sports med, he's not a cutter. The hip guy? Cutter. And I really don't want surgery. 

I'm getting ahead of myself. 

Right now, this is my life. 

Song by: the Rolling Stones