Comments on: Reaching Painful Conclusions

By: Dr. Lee Miller D.C.

Dr. Lee Miller D.C. — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:11:30 +0000

As a health care provider, we use CATBITES to assess bone injuries. This stands for:
C-congenital (born with it)
A-arthritic
T-traumatic
B-blood disorders
I-infectious
T-tumor
E-endocrine
S-soft tissue

So there can be more to an injury than meets the eye. I suggest people try to use common sense when they self diagnose and treat because unfortunately- you don’t know what you don’t know, and in some cases ignorance is definitely not bliss!

By: IHateToast

IHateToast — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 22:25:06 +0000

ha! no kidding! not only do people have different pain thresholds, they have to factor in adrenaline and endorphins. and the “whuddathunkit” problem. i fractured my neck of femur at the end of the HNL marathon and had noooo idea. thought it was bursitis. finished. a bit slower, but i got that medal. now i have 2 pins in my butt. so perhaps i shouldn’t have kept running when i started to feel wonky, but it never occurred to me that it was a bone problem. itb? bursitis? just another marathon ache?
but… i’ve run through other pains (and lawn sprinklers) and came out okay. aaaah the joys.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:36:10 +0000

and i’ll toss in my 2 cents; which is that running helped to ease my severe back pain considerably, to the point where it is now bearable again.

By: Blaine Moore (Run to Win)

Blaine Moore (Run to Win) — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:55:54 +0000

My motto is to run through annoyance but not through pain. It helps that I have a high pain threshold and can usually tell pretty early when something is wrong and how long I can use it before it gets to the point where bad things are going to happen.

By: Anne

Anne — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 18:10:52 +0000

Yes, Mark, please do write an article on your experience because I think there are others who’d like to know what happened. Lower back pain is one of those ailments that seems to eventually claim everyone that runs long enough.

By: Mark Iocchelli

Mark Iocchelli — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 17:46:22 +0000

It is a really difficult balancing act isn’t it? I think the most important thing though is that distinction between sharp pain that doesn’t go away, and dull, achiness that is mostly around in between running.

I had an experience running through lower back pain that I’d like to share but it would take too much space here. Perhaps I’ll write up an article?