Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Crutch Confessional

Life since M2B has been....interesting. By which I mean deeply painful, and very inconvenient. Let's take it day by day, shall we?

Sunday 5/26: By the time I got to the airport Sunday, I could only walk in tiny, shuffling, extremely painful steps, & navigated my way around the rental car return mostly by clinging to anything I could use as a support to help avoid putting any weight on my right leg. This was made even more interesting by the fact that I was carrying three bags. When I got to the airport proper, the idea of continuing to walk on it was just laughable. Finally someone at the ticket counter took pity on me & ordered a wheel chair.

Back in SF, it took a solid five minutes & Don & my combined efforts to transport me from the car to the couch. There may or may not have been a lot of yelping. At this point, any amount of weight on my right leg was a 17 out of 10 on the pain scale. If I wanted to go from one room to another, I had to either hop on one leg or use a funny little crab shuffle I eventually figured out. I couldn't sleep because that night because, even just laying in bed not moving, the pain was still maybe 7 out of 10.

Monday 5/27: I can stand in one place with weight mostly on my good leg with basically no pain, & take very, very small hobbly steps, mostly leaning on things, & stay at ~2.5 out of 10. Stepping the wrong way, turning, or moving too quickly still 17 out of 10.

It's so tragic it's hilarious. I guess.
Tuesday 5/28: Still taking tiny steps at ~2-3 out of 10, but I can bear maybe just a little more weight. Still can't put on pants or shoes without sitting down. Still can't go up & down steps without holding on to something & going very very slowly. I had a massage on Tuesday morning, and for ~2-3 hours I was totally pain free as long as I stuck to my tiny little steps & went slowly. Then it came back.

Wednesday 5/29: I tried doing some martial arts just standing in one place, but it turns out that all the upper body stuff that uses your core still uses those lower hip flexor muscles, so after half an hour I gave up & just sat down.

Friday 5/31: Everything pretty much the same. Went to PT Friday morning, & the PT told me that because I only had pain with weight bearing & not with passive motion, it was likely just muscle & not connective tissue (which is good, because connective tissue has less of a blood supply & takes longer to heal). When I told her about how I couldn't put on pants or go up & down stairs with the bad leg, she said. "Yeah...That's really bad." She gave me a crutch, which made it so that I could take my slow little steps with more of a biomechanically normal gait, & with almost no pain.

Monday 6/3: Another massage in the morning, which again got rid of the pain for about 2 hours. Then it came back. Still on the crutch. Still can't weight bear. Still can't go up & down stairs. Saw my regular PT in the afternoon, who ruled out a bunch of stuff (bursitis, labral tears) & was still mystified as to why, a week after the fact, I still couldn't put weight on the leg without my knee locked. "To be honest, we've kind of ruled out everything but bone," he said. "It's not really presenting like bone, but even with the worst muscle strain in the world, you shouldn't need a crutch after a week." The decision was to do x-rays next Monday and confirm or rule out a femoral neck stress fracture.

Tuesday 6/4: I can walk almost normally without the crutch, with almost no pain. I can take bigger steps with almost no pain (most of the time) move my hip joint through the full range of motion in every direction with no pain. Turning my leg at the hip & then trying to step is still ~4 out of 10, and bearing weight on it with a bent knee or trying to go up & down steps is still 17 out of 10 (ie, I pretty much just collapse).

So....that is the story so far. I am deeply troubled by what basically amounts to complete & total healing of the muscle soreness combined with the equally complete & total inability to bear weight without debilitating pain. SF Second Half, we may have to reschedule sometime. :(

13 comments:

  1. Ok, so - I just got off 6 months of confused injury when a femoral fracture (diaphyseal, not neck) was misdiagnosed as a muscle tear. Get the imaging!

    Similar to you - I could not go downstairs without agony! But it was such an odd location for a fracture that nobody thought that could be the case.

    Stay off it. Get well.

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    1. Hmmm, another interesting possibility...No matter what, I'll just be glad to know!

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  2. Yikes! Hope you find out what's wrong with it and begin treatment soon!

    That totally sucks about SF -- it would've been nice to see you there.

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    1. I will be there no matter what!! Just probably not running...

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  3. I'm glad the pain is starting to subside a little, but ugh what a rough one. Bone related injuries just sound excruciating. I have my fingers crossed for your x-ray and results. Sounds like there was a little change in the right direction from yesterday to today, so hopefully that's the start of a speedy recovery.

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  4. I wish that you could get in sooner for some imaging to get to the bottom of your pain. It sounds awful! Hang in there and just take it easy on yourself. Keeping my fingers crossed for an easy and quick fix!

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  5. This update makes your 3:36 even more badass, if you still have intense pain 10 days later.
    I would have recommended the x-ray, too, because it's been long enough. Of course, x-rays don't always show stress fractures, so then it's a battle of money/insurance regarding an MRI or bone scan. Hang in there, and I hope those level 17 pains continue to subside.

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  6. Oh, man. I am so sorry. It sounds like you are in a lot of discomfort. I'll cross my fingers it is a soft tissue issue. I spent 6 months trying to fix a "soft tissue" issue which turned out to be a bone issue so I am glad you are getting imaged now. Either way it goes, I hope your discomfort lessens very soon.

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    1. Every time I'd read a blog post about your leg, I'd be like, "Wow, her thing sounds a lot like my thing..." Amazed you were able to actually run on it for so long!

      Either way, I'll be glad just to know.

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  7. I'm so sad about this! I really hope that you figure out what it is, and soon. What a crazy adventure. Even with all the physical therapy and warnings and expectations leading into the race, I didn't expect you to be plagued with this kind of pain on the other side of it. So sorry!

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  8. Oh you poor thing. Crutches are so horrible, I hated being on them. I really hope it gets better soon. Is SF def out the window? I'm guessing so...so sorry about that!

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  9. Oh NO! I hope you get some good answers and an action plan soon.

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  10. Wow, that looks/sounds serious. Yea, hopefully it is a muscle or soft tissue injury only, and not a stress fracture or something more serious. Because the immense pain you feel when bearing weight on it is not a good sign. I remember my sports doc telling me that a good way to help prove that you are over a stress fracture in your lower body/ankle is pain free hopping, and 20 heel raises. I hope the eval goes well.

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