An update on my role in the world of jogging and walking is long overdue. The last five weeks have been difficult for me in terms of exercise. Now's a good time to finally share what's been happening.
The last time I jogged was on February 7th. It was a 3 mile jog, and I was proud of myself for finally beating the 12 min/mile pace. I really felt like I was making progress in transitioning from brisk walking to jogging. But I was ignoring the sharp pains in my shins. You're told to "run through the pain" and I did, proudly. But I've now recognized you shouldn't run through sharp pain. That's your body telling you, "Hey, I'm not just tired - I'm literally falling apart here, so you had better stop this." On that last jog, I even sprinted and though the pain intensified (it felt like a knife was cutting along the front of my shins), I stuck with it.
For several days, the pain stuck around, but I started to think maybe jogging just wasn't for me. So on February 13th, I went for a semi-brisk 3.2 mi walk. Still ignoring my body's screams, I walked through the sharp pain. After that walk, I finally listened and decided I would rest until the pain went away.
Except the pain didn't go away. Week after week, the pain was in fact getting worse. Simple walking, standing up, sitting down, sleeping - it didn't matter, the pain was there. So I scheduled an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon. Maybe this wasn't just your simple case of shin splints. I was lucky that I only had to wait a week for the appointment, even as a new patient.
During the appointment on March 7th, the doctor did a physical examination of my shins, pushing here and there, asking if anything hurt. At one point, I nearly yelped in pain and he immediately thought it was stress fractures. A stress fracture is a small crack in your bone, though not as bad as a full fracture. It is however an indication you're overdoing it. So he sent me to have x-rays and a bone scan to confirm that diagnosis.
The tests were done on March 10th. The x-rays were straight-forward but I'd never had a bone scan before. They injected a radioactive fluid into my bloodstream, then I waited three hours for the radioactive fluid to spread throughout my system. Then they did the actual bone scan. They strapped me down (literally) and told me I would need to lie completely still for thirty minutes as a machine overhead scanned my body. It's not like an MRI where you're in a tube; in a bone scan, the machine is simply above you, albeit only a couple inches above you. Apparently, a bone scan can see where your blood is flowing in greater amounts. If it is flowing more than usual in a certain place, it likely means your body is in the process of healing itself in that location. Hence, if you have a stress fracture, the bone scan will show a dark area in that location because the bone is healing. The bone scan results are then compared with the x-rays.
When I returned to the doctor this morning, I really thought he'd tell me the bone scan confirmed stress fractures. Instead he said, nope - it's definitely shin splints. He showed me the x-rays and bone scan. I find these fascinating, by the way. The x-rays showed all was well with the bones in my legs. But he pointed out the bone scan did show the shin splints at least. There were clear dark areas along the sides of my shins, and he said it was a classic case of shin splints. Granted, I do have severe shin splints, but now I kind of feel like I'm a wuss! My pain tolerance must be lower than I thought. The doctor said rest will cure shin splints, but he was concerned that the five weeks of rest I've had so far hadn't yet relieved the pain.
So, now he's recommending I get an MRI to get a closer look at the shin splint injury and see if there's any other factors at play here. The MRI has yet to be scheduled, as they're waiting to hear from my insurance company for approval. But at least the main diagnosis of shin splints is confirmed.
I will continue to rest my legs. No brisk walking, and certainly no jogging. The doctor said that perhaps, "jogging is just not your friend." I'd agree. All I really want to do is briskly walk - I enjoy walking, and I'm good at it. Heck, I beat the 3 hour mark in a half marathon just walking, and I'm proud of that! I'm just ready to get back to exercising. I miss it all, and I can't wait to have it back in my routine.
The lesson here for me is that Bruce Springsteen's song "Born to Run" doesn't quite fit in my situation. That's right, Bruce, you've got it wrong. But you better believe that when I'm in good shape again and briskly walking, my iPod playlist will include that song out of pure spite! Haha, it's good to have a goal.
I'll keep you all updated on what happens with the rest of my journey to full recovery.
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