Not again.
That was my first thought as I made the appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. My mind flashed back to 1994; the 9th annual Christie Clinic 10k. It was the first race I paid for in advance! I had taken the week off prior to the race, as I was having an odd pain in my knees. It was a pain I didn't recognize, but I assumed it was benign and continued running. It had been slowly worsening over many weeks. Running 20 miles with the last 6 at 6:00 pace (with the Chicago marathon in mind) clearly did not help, but probably a week off would be enough.
Alas, it was not. As I tried to do some strides, I found I was unable to run even a few steps without severe pain. It was the kind of pain that you simply cannot run through. So I picked up my T-shirt, cheered on my friends, and went home.
I was not to compete again until 1999. After 3 years of esssentially no running, struggling with such treatments as ultrasound, ice, enough ibuprofen to permanently destroy my stomach, and physical therapy, I got to the point of running 1-2 days a week. I used knee wraps, and I iced after every type of physical activity (very religiously) for the next 9 years. Over time, I was able to slowly move up my training, such that by 2006 I was actually serious about running races. I was approaching 18:00 for 5k, and managed to move up to 30 miles a week.
Last year, my orthopedist friend (Dr. K) came up to me and said "Every time I see you running, you have those stupid wraps on; let's just scope you and figure out what is wrong."
One MRI later, I was pronounced completely healed, and I proceeded to go out that afternoon and run 10 miles. Sure, I was sore, but I had made the final step back to normalcy. I took off my security blanket knee wraps, quit icing after every run, and actually got stronger. The act of sitting on the floor with legs outstretched probably made me tighter; I realized that stretching made more sense than routine icing to prevent injury.
So when my hip started flaring up to the point where it hurt to walk, I was indeed very dismayed. I got an X-ray, and I showed it to another orthopedist (Dr. K was out of town). He announced that I needed surgery -- they would have to break my hip and clean out the joint to fix this problem.
After wrapping my brain around that, making a few calls to orthopedists who did the procedure, and sweating like a Sumo wrestler over a bonfire, I decided to get a second opinion.
After a few curbside consults with Dr. K, I finally broke down and made the appointment for a regular exam. But this pain wasn't as bad. It got better when I ran. It was almost certainly not related to the joint, Dr. K. said, so instead of getting an MRI, I took a week off and continued stretching. Plus, I had used acupuncture in the past, so I gave Kenji a call, and stabbed me full of needles, which helped.
Between the rest, acupuncture, celebrex, and traumeel (homeopathic cream) I actually got better. The pain is still around, I cannot lie on my right side, and after long or challenging runs I am very sore. But the problem seems to be more of a hip flexor injury, which should get better over time. I guess the tennis (which I started playing again this year) probably was responsible. So no tennis until this goes away.
In the meanwhile, it's back to running! I planned on doing lots of races this year (including the Seacoast Series) and hopefully I can report on my progress. Also, I hope to learn about blogging and website design (one can always use another skill set!)
Thanks to Jim and Kevin for putting yourselves out there in the blogosphere and getting me started in this venture!
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Darin
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