After running the Cowtown Ultramarathon, I almost immediately took some Ibuprofen to alleviate some of my pain. I came home, took an ice bath and I did some foam rolling. And other than an outing for some amazing Tex-Mex food at Casa Rita's (brisket stuffed chile relleno - yes please!!), I laid on the couch and elevated my achy legs. As soon as the kids went to bed, I crashed. And I crashed HARD! Usually after a long run or race, I have trouble sleeping, but that night I slept from 8pm - 2am, where I was woken up by my little Sweet P who had to tell me that she needed to go to the bathroom - didn't want my help; she just wanted to tell me about it. Once I was up, I decided it was snack time so I ate a leftover taco and went back to sleep. I then slept from 3am - 7am. So nine hours total - so unlike me!
When I woke up, my legs were super achy. They hurt to walk on, especially the left one. It felt like the worst shin splints imaginable with throbbing pain. I decided to do some foam rolling with my hand-held roller, and when I rolled up my left pant-leg, I discovered bruising on my shin and a swollen bulge on the left side of my left leg. I did some online research and discovered that shin splints, swelling, and bruising are very, very common symptoms of a tibial stress fracture. The tibia is the larger bone in the lower leg, and according to Runner's World, is the most common stress fracture site, followed by toes and the foot. While I was fairly certain that I had a stress fracture based on my symptoms, I decided to head to my sports medicine doctor for a diagnosis - especially since shin splints and stress fractures have very similar presentations. I called my doctor, made an appointment, and lugged both kids to my sports medicine doctor, Dr. Brock at Raintree Healthcare.
I have seen Dr. Brock a couple of times before for running related injuries (piriformis issues in my right hip and bad tendinitis in my right leg following my first marathon), and she is just amazing. She has two kids around my kids' ages so she can relate to them and she's just a super friendly lady. If you are in the Northern suburbs of Dallas, I would highly recommend her if you are looking for a sports medicine doctor (and, no, I'm not getting paid to say that!). Her athletic trainer came in and took one look at my leg, felt a hot spot, and immediately ordered an x-ray. The x-ray was fairly painful. Not the picture part - but the positions I had to put my foot in for the picture to be clear was excruciating. Of course, I had the kids with me, so they had to sit outside the room during all of this so that they weren't exposed to the radiation. Luckily I had brought the Nabi and Ipad with me to keep them entertained, but the whole time I was getting the x-ray, I was envisioning them running up and down the hallways screaming and knocking stuff over. Luckily when I was done, I came out to them sitting quietly, playing their games. Because, honestly, I can totally see them running up and down the halls throwing things. Sometimes.
Dr. Brock came in and, after looking over my x-rays, confirmed the stress fracture in my leg. She told me I would be on crutches for at least 1 week (until the pain went away) and a boot for 4 - 6 weeks. I was given crutches at the office and texted my best running friend to let her know I needed to borrow her boot - she had a stress fracture about a year previously. Wearing a boot for 4 - 6 weeks also means no running for 4 - 6 weeks. I don't think this has fully hit me yet. Following the ultra, I had already planned on not running distance for a while to allow a mental and physical recovery; so maybe I just feel like I'm in recovery mode still? I did just run 31.07 miles so maybe running just doesn't sound fun mentally right now!
Now, I have never broken a bone before in my life. Not an arm or a toe or finger. Nothing. I have never used crutches before either. After a week on crutches, I can tell you one thing: they are awful. If you ever see someone on crutches, just go give them a hug and offer to go get something for them. Because honestly, everything is a chore when you have crutches. The athletic trainer had shown me how to walk with them so that I was using my arms. I had always thought that crutches rested inside your armpits, but discovered that having them in that position can cause nerve damage. Instead, you need to have them 3 - 4 fingers width down from your armpits (about 1.5 inches) and keep your arms mostly straight when you use them, putting your weight on the crutch hand-holds as you swing forward. This is great, but after the first day, the crutches had rubbed my chest and arms raw and there were tender spots that hurt to touch. The pads of my hands hurt from putting all of my weight on them to swing forward, and my arms were SO sore. I found myself not wanting to get up, and I know I didn't drink enough water or use the bathroom enough. I can completely understand why someone who uses crutches regularly or is wheelchair bound can get a urinary tract infection so easily; it's a lot of work to get fluids in and even more work to make it to the bathroom!
The second day on crutches, I had to take both kids to school by myself. I had never realized how incredibly LONG the hallway from the from front door of their school to their classrooms was until I walked it with crutches. Good grief! I was suddenly wishing my kids had carpool drop off instead of in-room drop off. The kids' teachers were very understanding though, and helped the kids put their backpacks and coats away so that I wouldn't have to navigate the classrooms of little 3 and 5 year olds. I did the same thing for the next day. By Wednesday afternoon, though, I had to call back my doctor's office and ask for some pain pills. My Aleve wasn't cutting it, and I was having trouble sleeping. My husband picked up my pain pills that night, and after taking one, I felt so much better.
On Thursday morning, though, I woke up with the worst headache I've had in a long, long time. I tried headache medicine, but that didn't seem to have any effect. I felt very nauseous. My husband had to get the kids ready and pack their lunches. He had a work meeting though so he couldn't drop them off. I soldiered through drop off and then went home, took a pain pill and went back to sleep. A friend picked up the kids after school and took them to her house for a playdate so I could keep resting, and my sister came over to assist once they were dropped off at home. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm guessing that the pain, my body tensing up after the pain, and stress of having a stress fracture triggered a migraine. After about Noon, my headache had gone completely, but it was very frustrating to have that. I'm glad I was able to sleep through most of it!
My mom came up this past weekend to give me and my husband, Derek, a break with the kids. Derek had become my legs over the last few days and had been put in charge of getting the kids ready for school and bed, cooking supper (luckily, at The Cowtown Ultramarathon, I had scored 7 BOGO Chipotle coupons and one of my sweet friends had brought over Papa Murphy's pizza and salad so supper was easy for him), cleaning, and everything else that I would normally do. He was understandably tired and I was exhausted from not only the stress fracture but also from running 31 miles! She helped out a lot over the weekend by making some freeze-ahead meals, getting Piper's hair cut, running around with both kids, and being my nurse. She left Sunday afternoon so she could get back to San Antonio at a decent hour.
Being off my feet over the weekend really helped my leg. My swelling went down and I was able to ditch the crutches. No more hop-along! Yesterday was my first non-crutch day and it went pretty well. It did feel a little weird to put weight on that foot again since I have been off of it completely for almost two weeks. For the most part I felt pretty good, but by the time I put the kids to bed, I was ready to rest it. Injuries and kids are hard to manage!
This morning the leg was a tad swollen, which was poor timing since I also had my follow up doctor's appointment today. I was kind of regretting having made the appointment for the day after I got off my crutches because of the swelling. It had been fine just the day before! At my doctor's appointment, though, she said it is looking much, much better. She said she expected it to be a little swollen after being off the crutches - so that wasn't a biggie. She gave me some exercises to do to keep my leg muscles toned and encouraged me to take the boot off 3 - 4 times per day to do the exercises. And the best part?!? She cleared me to swim and bike! For the bike, though, I have to keep my boot on for the next two weeks. Hmmm...that'll be interesting to see how that works! I'm just relieved to be able to get back to some level of activity. Right now, I'm pretty much exhausted by just walking around.
