I Got the Boot

I've been AWOL in my posting lately ~ but I've had an excuse. The screaming pain in my right leg led me to a misguided attempt at a solution, which resulted in every runner's worst fear ~ a stress fracture.

This is not my first stress fracture. Four years ago, when I first started running, I got one by overtraining. This one is in the same leg, but I am fairly certain it was caused by trying to run a marathon in a do-it-yourself orthotic. It was desperate, moreso than stupid ~ nothing was working, and it was the only thing I could think of to try.

I ended up running a half marathon instead of a full ~ I could tell at mile 2 that I was not going to make it 26.2 miles. It was at about mile 8 that it started to feel like the sharp, localized pain of a stress fracture, instead of the generalized, twisty pain I had been experiencing due to my biomechanical problem. When it did not get better after a couple of days back home, I knew what it was, and anticipating the doctor's orders, I dug the astronaut boot and the crutches out of the closet, and hobbled over to see him.

"I concur with your diagnosis," the doctor told me, and ordered me to be on crutches for the next month.

I immediately started negotiating with him. Last time, the crutches caused my arms and hands to become numb after two weeks, and I ended up using a wheelchair to save my hands from long-term injury. (Being a musician, I cannot afford to sacrifice my hands!)

I think he could see that a wheelchair would be overkill, so he said the boot and a cane would be ok some of the time. The idea is not to put any weight on it. I negotiated that, too. So he said 10 pounds. I don't know how to measure how much weight is on my leg, so my strategy is just to try to be as good as I can.

I think I've been about 93% compliant. There are times when you just have to put some weight on your leg. I am sure that using a cane and the boot does not make me entirely weightless on one side, even if it is an astronaut boot. I can use crutches (zero weight), but when you use two crutches, you can't carry anything, and there's that aforementioned problem about the hands. You can't really use crutches in the shower. And I am not going to crutch myself across a stage to sit at the piano during a concert!

So I have chosen my sins carefully, and then I've made up for them by lying around on my tush whenever I'm not carrying or showering or under the spotlight.

I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about it. It takes a great deal more time and mental energy to go anywhere or do anything than it used to. Just getting my coffee in the morning is a challenge. I have to have coffee before I can function. I use the two-crutch system to get to the kitchen, because I have to have coffee before I can boot up. Once the coffee is made, there are a couple of ways to get it to the table. My preferred method is the "bucket brigade" ~ my furniture is lined up to pass the bucket of life-saving liquid to where it is urgently needed. I set the cup down, take a step, move the cup to the next surface, take a step, move the cup, etc.

Of course, when people see me ~ even strangers ~ they give me a look of pity, and often ask me how it happened. I pinned my race number to the boot, to help put a positive spin on the story. My usual response is to smile brightly and say "It's a running injury ~ from running marathons!" (and then, sheepishly,) "I'm kinda proud of it." If they insist on frowning and telling me that it's a bad thing, I try to console them, and remind them that it's only temporary, and could be worse.

That's what I say to people. But just between you and me, I have only had a limited amount of positive attitude. Just enough to get me through the day, and then I come home and wallow in self pity. That is why I haven't blogged. My hands are numb. Frankly, this sucks, and I've just had to get my work done, and limp through Christmas, ... I haven't felt like I wanted to go online and blog about it. It has taken this long to get the whining restricted to this one paragraph here. A paragraph which is coming to an end, so that's it for complaining.

I have a lot of fun stuff to blog about ~ I've been saving things up whilst awaiting a break in the activity (I just wish the break didn't have to be in my leg!) ~ Now that I have a week off, and happy thoughts, more or less, I'll be writing a lot of posts.

The first week in January, I go back to the doctor. I assume he is going to take another x-ray, and my mobility in the immediate future will depend on what he sees. If he sees his shadow, it will mean six more weeks of crutches. So I'm hoping for a cloudy day.