Wednesday, March 25, 2015

ScottyTris, MD

I'm getting tired of talking about medical issues here but that's my life right now, sadly.

So I continued with my foam rolling.  Monday I was doing better.  I decided to wait until Tuesday to see if it still helped.  Tuesday I was feeling even better.  PT Ross gave me the go ahead to run/ride.  So I decided to ride and call him on Wednesday to see how I'm doing.  Wednesday wasn't better but wasn't worse, so he green lighted running.  I did 2 miles on the treadmill and 1 mile on the track.  I wanted to use the treadmill to keep pace and a softer landing.  This SUCKED because I was staring out the window at the first warm weather day.

Thursday it was time to see Ross again... and I wasn't feeling any better.  Maybe a bit worse.  Again, I had to be honest.  This time I could point out exactly where it was sore.  As soon as I did this a light came on and Ross diagnosed a tight Iliopsoas.  Basically the same muscle group known as the Hip Flexor.

He showed me a couple stretches and some strength training exercises and sent me on my way.  As I was heading out he said to keep on "running, biking, and swimming"!  SWEET!

One of the stretches involved a BOSU ball.  I didn't exactly want to go to the gym multiple times a day to do this stretch, so I found a brand new one on Craigslist.  Friday morning I went to the gym and did my stretching and weights.  During the gym session, I planned out a meeting point for the BOSU ball and by 7:30am I had it and was on my merry way to work.

Interestingly enough, the hip was feeling pretty good.  I did a 5 mile run at lunch.  Did more stretching after.  Before noon I had already showered twice, at two different YMCAs.  That's a pretty good day!  I even snuck in a bike ride that evening.  Was I doing too much?

Saturday I hit the pool in the morning and then did a High Five Station at the Big 12 12k Run on KC Sports Commissions request.  I did have a two hour bike planned that afternoon.  Even though it was OK outside, I did it on the trainer.  I've been having some trouble getting my Power Meter to read correctly on my Tri Bike, so I ended up hosing up most of the ride by hopping on and off the bike tweaking it.  Eventually I just wasn't into the ride and cut it after 90 minutes.  My legs were pretty sore from the strength training the day before... but my hip felt great!

Sunday I met up with Kristen and the Sunday Runday group and ran 14 miles.  It went pretty well.  It wasn't the fastest, which is good because I wanted to keep the pace slow.  I did run about 1/2 a mile with the organizer, Donny, and we hit some 7:30-ish paces and, while it felt great to hit that pace, I knew it wasn't wise.

So after recording 19 miles running, 2.5 hours riding, and 1 hour of swimming, by Monday morning my hip was feeling... great!  I ended up calling Ross on Friday after a few more workouts (which included an 8 mile threshold run) and told him I was doing quite well BUT was concerned with a shin splint.  He agreed to see me the next Thursday and would tape me up with some KT tape.  By doing this I would be taped for my 18 mile run on Sunday.  According to Ross, if I watched the wrong video to tape it, I could end up doing something really bad.  He was being honest and wasn't trying to rip me off for another $40.  I didn't care, he fixed my hip.  He can have that plus more.

Saturday came and I rode outside for 2 hours.  It felt awesome.  That evening my hip and shin splint were both feeling good.  I met up with Kristen again on Sunday morning for my 16 miles.  She ran with me for four miles before heading back.  I did the following 8 miles on my own.  While my hip was feeling good, my shin was cranky.  I had four miles left when a girl who was running Boston as well caught up with me and we ran together for the final 4 miles.  She had told me how she missed her first Boston with an injury.  So she understood my situation.  After running with her for two miles, I realized we were kicking 7:30 - 7:45s instead of the 8:15 - 8:30 that I should have been running.  Finish strong, right?

By the time I got home, my shin was yelling at me.  It was bad.  I managed to get around but was not pretty.  Monday morning I could barely walk.  I knew this wasn't right.  I've had shin splints before but NOTHING like this.  I called my general physician as soon as they opened and scheduled an appointment at 10:30am.  Fortunately for me, TKB took the day off and could take me into the office.  Yes, I could drive but stretching my foot to push on the gas was quite uncomfortable.  Unfortunately for TKB, she had to spend the morning of her day off dealing with me at the Doctor's office.

Doc did some "point" tests and other range tests.  His gut feeling was it was a bad shin splint and not a stress fracture.  Until an MRI was taken, it wouldn't be possible to know.  So he did something that I thought was interesting.  He asked me what I wanted to do!  He knew I wanted to remain active.  So we came up with a plan:


  • Get in with the PT as soon as possible to do the KT tape now so it would help just walking around.
  • Take the remaining Meloxicam for inflammation the he prescribed me bake in early February.  He prescribed me 30 pills but directed me to only take 10 of them back then.
  • Hold off on running for a bit but when I do, hit the treadmill.
  • Start talking to the health insurance about doing an MRI.  This was just for the approval, not that I would actually do it.

I talked to Ross and was going to see him Tuesday morning and started the meds.  I made it into work around noon and went immediately into about 7 hours of meetings.  I got home, still in pain, and basically went to bed at 8:30pm.  The two days of bad shin splint pain and two months of dealing with all this crap had caught up to me.

Tuesday morning it was still very very uncomfortable.  I couldn't tell if it had gotten better.  I manage to shave the bottom third of my right leg to help the KT tape adhere.  Ross showed me how to put on the tape and gave me some stretches and a few strength things to do.

Meet my new sock for the next 3 weeks.


 Similar to my physician, he asked me what I wanted to do.  I didn't go to medical school!  I discussed the same plan with him as I did my physician and he liked it.  I wouldn't say I felt immediately better but there is always something comforting with a plan.

Another long day of meetings but when I got home, I could tell a difference.  It was good.  Wednesday morning (today), I was still sore but better.  Much better.  While I still had pain, it wasn't quite the same as what had been coming on over the previous weeks.  That could be the tape, or the stretching, or the meloxicam... or my new found medical profession.

I rode my bike tonight and did some hard intervals.  It wasn't irritated when I was pushing the 500 watts for 30 seconds or when I unclipped.  I'm hoping things feel even better tomorrow as I will plan to hit the treadmill for 4 or 5 miles tomorrow night.

I've never worked so hard to run a marathon and not refer to the training.


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