Grab your stress snacks. Tears are being shed here.

Not actually tears but dang close.  
I took 9 days off from my last half marathon, worked on my core, took a lot of ibuprofen and iced iced iced.  The pain is so hard to explain but it's definitely nerve pain and it shoots down the outside of my leg and making my knee hurt and down to the ankle.  It's crazy how bad it can hurt.  Sometimes it hurts just to walk.  

I went to the gym last week.  I wanted to run an easy 3 miles on a flat surface so I decided to hit the gym.  Well, within 1 step trying to run I was immediately hit with a sharp nerve pain from my knee to my ankle.  I tried stretching, running slower and even walking.  At about 10 minutes I gave it up and finished my 30 minutes on the cycle.  

SO depressing!  

Did some strengthening exercises.  
Came home.
Cooked.

Enough soup to last a week.  SOOOO delicious! 

(did not make or eat the bread)

The constant injuries are wearing on me.  The only time I ran without injury was when I took a couple of Pilates classes a week.  I'm considering finding a good Pilates workout on CD.  

I wanted to eat through my tears but I went for my new favorite snack.

Celery, cashew butter and craisins

I went to the sports doc last Thursday.  They couldn't figure out anything definitive.  If it's going down my leg then they (the doctor and resident) think it's my back but it's not my back.  There was other words thrown around but in the end they thought it was mechanical and sent me to physical therapy.  

Luckily my very favorite PT from the running clinic, Laura, had an opening that night!   She was just as perplexed.  We narrowed it down to my knee.  She did the Graston just above my knee (OUCH) then taped and iced it.  She also gave me a couple of new exercises to do.  

not my knee or Laura

It's been 5 days since then.   The tape is helping.  I'm also icing.  I went to the massage therapist and in her words, "that leg is just not giving it up".  It's frustrating but I really want to move on from this.  I haven't needed the ibuprofen and that's a big improvement.  Plus I get to share my "scrotee" with friends, family and co-workers!

Scrotee - when your knee is taped while bent so that when you straighten your leg your knee now resembles a scrotum.  

I have been keeping close track just to try and keep me motivated.  

Even added a couple of strengthening moves.

Just lifting a light weight with my feet.  I don't move my leg just lift my foot up and down.

Important Info:

Did you know that you can feel like shit after acutely stopping ibuprofen?  I really wanted to give my body a break and the pain was decreasing so I slowed way down and finally stopped today.  I've had a rebound headache since.  Hoping to snap out of it tomorrow.  Usually I just get really sore and feel every knot and creak in my body for a day and then feel better.  This time I had nausea and a headache.  I narrowed it down to stopping the ibuprofen.  

I'm a hot mess and when I say hot I'm talking about a hot flash!  


Work has been great.  We've had a couple of long flights during the day over the beautiful changing leaves.  We don't have our cell phones on during flight and I don't have a regular camera so I don't have pictures.  

It's been the best fall ever!  I appreciate living here in Utah more every season.

I also had a most excellent day in the OR.  Each team member spends one day in the OR intubating patients.  We work closely with the anesthesiologist and learn so much!  I did study before hand.  Have to know your landmarks!

High five for FOUR successful first pass intubations before noon!!

Looking for the perfect name for our Masters Ultra in February.  Any ideas will be welcomed!!  

Blog on........