Blogs : Beth Lutz

Day 9/Day 10: Injuries, unlike science, Suck*

After hobbling around all day on Sunday, I knew that chances were pretty good that my achilles wouldn't feel much better on Monday. Oh, how I wish I was wrong.

But I wasn't, and as a result I got to visit the UWEC Training Room for the first time ever (not counting ice baths). I'm always leery about seeing doctors or trainers about running injuries, because so often they either have no clue what's going on (I've managed to successfully diagnose about 90% of my running problems without medical intervention, including my stress fracture, which I called the first time my leg felt funny, but which took a doctor four weeks to confirm.) or their advice is the standard, "take time off and ice." Well, yes, that will probably cure the vast majority of running injuries, but it's simply not possible (by which I mean, no way in heck would any runner do it) to take two weeks off to cure every little thing that can hurt in training. My ideal medical professional would be a runner at the college level or higher whose goal was to get me back training absolutely as soon as possible. So, as that little tangent shows, I have a lot of unresolved frustration with the medical community.

Back to the training room. I went in and had to go through a lengthy medical evaluation that they do for everyone who comes in with an injury. I also got to serve as a test case for a new trainer. It was fun. Actually, no it wasn't. Half an hour later, they diagnosed my injury as inflammation of the bursa sac and did some ultrasound and told me not to run or do anything without their express permission and come back in again tomorrow. Okeydokey.

This is not a knock on the UWEC Training staff, who are all wonderful people. This is the repressed runner talking who is lashing out in anger because she can't run.

I went for a bike ride and then spent the rest of the evening massaging and then icing my leg every three hours.

Come Tuesday my achilles (and yes, I know it's actually my bursa, but that's the area of the body it relates to and bursa just sounds funny) was feeling better, although I could still feel the injury. After talking to Schwammie, we decided it'd be a good idea to hold off for one more day, particularly because the team was doing a harder workout that day where there would be a good chance of reinjury. So it was back to the training room. I got ultrasound again, then headed off for my bike.

This has not been the best two days of my life, but I'll get over it. I'm glad that my bursa (ha!) is responding to treatment and should be good to go in a shorter time period than three months.

*This title refers to a sign that was posted in my high school chemistry class that read, "Science never sucks, it always pushes and pulls." Hee, hee. What can I say, I'm a physics major.*

Untitled Comment

12:02 AM, September 7, 2008 .. Posted by just4chillin

repressed runner syndrome (RRS) can definitely be dangerous. keep focused and keep your head up.