A Passion for Running

Welcome to the home of Mark aka The Running Blogfather – a 40 year-old dad, husband and marathon runner who’s beaten injury and is on the comeback trail!

trying times

passion for running category: running on Monday, November 29 2004

I’m beginning to see why Aaron doesn’t like to talk about injuries when he thinks they are getting better. His experience is that just when things seem to be getting better, something happens to show they are not.

I seem to be experiencing that same jinxing effect. Last week, I mentioned the ankle felt really good but over the weekend I realized it is not. There is a tender spot on what I am now pretty sure is bone. When the doc checked it out, he said he was 95% sure it was a sprain but there was a very slim chance of a stress fracture. He offered (and even gave me a prescription for) an x-ray but I didn’t follow-through because he said stress fractures usually don’t show up on x-rays. At the time I asked myself, “well then why are you even offering to have it x-rayed Doc?”. The answer came from a work colleague who explained that, in Alberta, you must have tried an x-ray before you can have an MRI. MRI’s see everything in detail and likely would find a stress fracture if it was there. The problem with MRI’s here in Alberta is that the wait list is usually months long so, by the time you get one, you are probably all healed up.

So, it looks like I just need to be patient. Ramping up running mileage, frequence or intensity would probably be really stupid since if I do have a fracture, it would likely make it worse or at minimum extend the healing time.

In case you didn’t guess, I did not run this past weekend. I’m gonna go out for 40 minutes at lunch today and just enjoy the fact that I can at least do that.

On another note, Finter is still with us. You gotta like that!




7 Comments

1906

Comment by Jon in Michigan

Monday November 29, 2004 @

Here in the US, an xray costs the HMO less money. So they offer you that, then tell you they didn’t see anything. If you had a compound fracture, they would want an xray to verify it before treating you. Can you come back next Thursday, Sir? Sure, Doc, I’ll bring my baseball bat.

You’ve got a good plan, Mark. Slow and easy. Give it time to heal.

1907

Comment by Deene

Monday November 29, 2004 @

Take care.

1908

Comment by susan

Monday November 29, 2004 @

Sorry Mark. No fun, for sure. Just take it easy…as I’m sure you will.

1909

Comment by Pamalamadingdong

Monday November 29, 2004 @

DAMN! Sorry to hear it.
Get well soon. :(

1910

Comment by Richard

Monday November 29, 2004 @

Ouch! Not running really gets old after a while, doesn’t it? Still, you’re showing admirable restraint and good sense at the moment. Have you considered going out and kicking out some killer cross training, maybe trying a spin class or three?

1911

Comment by Dianna (RCOH)

Monday November 29, 2004 @

Groooannnn! No, no, no. Not good at all. I don’t like any of this one bit. Not one tiny bit. La la lalalalalalala I’m not listening to you lalalalallalalal.

1913

Comment by Lara

Monday November 29, 2004 @

You may want to check out an x-ray for the heck of it. Stress fractures sometimes show up on film after they have begun healing. That’s what happened to me – none of the docs would consider it was a stress fracture till it finally appeared 5 weeks later. I will say, and only from my own experience, that there were days when I could hardly bear weight on the ankle, say nothing of run. I hope that the fact that you can do even some running is a positive. Anyway, I hope whatever it is, that it’s gones-ville soon!

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