While training for the 3M half, which by the way was great and was my fastest half marathon to date, I took a hard fall on one of my last long runs. I was by myself, on mile 11 of 12 and was looking behind me to see if I could sprint across the street, and sadly my foot landed on the side of the curb, I was falling and didn't realize it until I hit the ground. I hit my knee and my wrist. Took a week off, went to the Dr (it was my fat clot leg) and they said to watch it. I did, nada, pain but I'm always in pain so whatever. I finished the race a few weeks later and then took about a month off. :)
I was training about 3-4 days a week, when I could squeeze it in. And then the most amazing thing happened..my work decided to send me to Europe! I've been wanting to go and meet my clients for years but never thought it would happen. So in late April I went over with the full intention of starting my training for my first almost Oly race in July. The first week I traveled everyday and the only exercise I got was walking/running to the gates in the airport and lifting my suitcase up above me on every flight. I'll have to write about my time in EU later, good times. ;) The second week I rode a commuter bike to my place of work every day (so 3 days) and swam twice. No running though. SO, when I came back I ran on Monday morning, 4 miles. Then Tuesday morning, 4 miles...exhausted! My next run was Saturday, I had an hour of running to complete and I did 5.5 miles, and then my knee blew up.
Well...it swelled up pretty bad anyway. So bad that I couldn't bend it by the end of the night. The next morning I couldn't put any weight on it so on Monday I got into the Dr. They drained 40cc of fluid out of the knee..gross, and gave me a cortisone shot and sent me on my way. They said to wait a few days before exercising so I did nothing and that weekend I swam...because by day three after I had it drained it was filling up with fluid again. Called the Dr the next Monday and they said to call an Ortho doc. Got in to them on Tuesday, they drained it and sent me for a MRI on Wednesday, and it started filling up again on Wednesday. We thought maybe a meniscus tear.
My inlaws came into town (another post...) and the Dr went on vacation so I had to wait for the results. When I called to check and see if I could exercise (I'd been 4 weeks without any consistent exercise and it was killing me) the medical assistant said, "yeah, so no meniscus tear, acl, lcl, all okay so just don't do anything high impact." Which I took as, "there is nothing wrong with you, it's in your head and you're going to have to deal with the pain." SO I swam on Saturday and rode my bike Sunday. Hurt like a mother effer. Got extremely drunk that Sunday night (it was Memorial Day weekend) and was hungover Monday but still swam that afternoon. Had my appt on Thursday when...
...my Dr (or PA) said, "well, there is no tear, but there is a LOT going on with your knee." Apparently I have a 13mm hole in my cartilage (see fall up above), left knee, and have worn all the cartilage down to the bone on my patella. Bone on bone. Enter pain and swelling and THANK GAWD it is not all in my head. The only fix is surgery unless I want to deal with the pain, not being able to walk my dogs more than a mile, getting into the shower and not being able to put my undies on like a normal person. Oh, and become a swimmer...not gonna happen. So T and I met with the surgeon on Monday, set a date...June 26th, and he is going to decide on which surgery once he gets in there. I have a surgical clearance appt with my primary on Monday, get my doppler done, blood work yada yada. And then we're just 2 weeks away.
I mean, there are worse things in the world. But this really screws with my plans this year. I'm gaining weight like no ones business...apparently my body didn't share with my appetite that we are doing less...therefore I do NOT NEED TO EAT SO FUCKING MUCH! I digress...it sucks. I can't even work out to get in shape before the surgery. Lame ass. And I may not be able to do my IM next year as I've been planning since LAST year. Ugh. Again though, there are worse things that could happen to a person.
