By now, most of you know that for the last few weeks I've been having problems with my left knee. What started out as just a slight pain turned into something that side-lined me for two weeks of training, and stopped me completely mid-race.
Well on Monday, October 24th I got to go to my doctor to start figuring out WHAT was wrong. The recap....they're not REALLY sure. My doctor came in and tested my range of motion, putting pressure on my knee, my heel, twisting me, poking me, prodding me...trying to provoke my symptoms. Well of course, now that I was FINALLY in my doctor's office, my knee didn't seem to want to show any signs of pain. Perfect. Freaking figures my body won't cooperate. Of COURSE my body wanted to be difficult and be the oddball...would anyone expect ANY less from me? Seriously? :)
Well it turns out maybe that's a good thing when it comes to my knee. Because it was a sign that there is no tear in the tendons/ligaments/meniscus. There was no swelling or tenderness to the touch, and the twisting and pressure giving no pain was also a good sign that there was stress fracture either. Nothing appeared in my exam that would give the doc cause for significant worry, or additional testing (e.g. MRI, x-ray, etc). Well that's all great news (seriously it is) but COME ON! Give me a diagnosis! Tell me what I can do! And in a way she did..but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear.....No running for a month.....that was the original order.
I guess I say goodbye to the half.....not so fast she says. My doc seems to think if I keep up my endurance training (low/non-impact), that I could still run my half...IF my knee gets better. In the meantime I was ordered to physical therapy twice a week for the next month. Well I wasted no time called up the PT office and made my appointment for a couple hours later.
I went in and basically got a more in depth evaluation than my first doctor did. Lots more twisting, pressing on my ankles, testing strength in my legs....trying to provoke my knee pains. Nothing really happened, except for when they'd ask me to flip from my back to my stomach, or when I'd lower my leg down from some random position. I have to grimace at the fact that I'd have the pain on the most RANDOM times....but it also makes me laugh because it 100% matches my personality. Go figure. I'm a quirky chick.
After the first session, there really wasn't any specific diagnosis other than what they could rule that it WASN'T. Again, no thoughts of any real tears to tendons/ligaments etc. Probably that my knee was just irritated with the increases in distance and pace. Maybe an IT band issue, or patella tracking. They gave me a couple of leg strengthening exercises to do while I'm not running and then we scheduled the remaining appointments.
I will say that it was hard NOT to be downhearted at the end of that day at the doctors office. I mean....I continuously thank my lucky stars that I didn't do something TERRIBLE to my knee, BUT it is almost MORE frustrating to sit in this limboland. To have no idea what caused it, and to not know a straight path as to how to fix it and get back on my feet (literally). I sat in bed that night wondering how in the world I could make my training schedule work with being off my runs for a month. That would mean I'd be cleared to run MAYBE on the 17th of November, which would give me only a week and a half before the taper week for race day. Could I really just hop back on and do an 8 or 9 mile run in that time, and then be prepared to bust out 13.1 on race day? And would that be smart?! Because after no running on the knee I feel like just hopping back into that distance would probably work ON race day, but afterward I'm sure that my knee would be putting up a major fight. But maybe it wouldn't....TOO MANY MAYBES!
I guess its just a wait and see game. Which SUCKS for me because I don't tend to have much patience to just wait and see what happens....I think for me its going to be a new type of training. Training my mind to deal with things one day at a time, and not allow myself to get downhearted before the game has ended. Because nothing is ever lost. Maybe delayed but never lost. Because you can always change, adapt and grow. You just have to have a little faith... a little hope...a little strength.
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