Old Man Still running

More of the same.  Pain about as bad as ever or worse.  Still can hardly walk.  Main problem is bursitis, two bursae are badly irritated, the worst right now is the infrapatellar bursa.  Boy, it really is painful, about an inch below the knee cap on the inner side.  It sites near a ligament and the patella tendon.  The tendon isn't sore, thank goodness.  But I can just tap on the area of the bursa and it creates big-time pain.

I'm sure other problems are joint pain, but they are so much lower than this bursitis.  I need a shot there, but the office is closed for the holiday, so no news or help.  Putting an ice pack on that area numbs things up for a little while.  Laying on the back with the leg up also makes the pain go away.

Well, believe it or not, the MRI came back fine.  Great news!  My ortho mostly laughed as he listened and talked to me about what I do.  After he discovered that I have run 23,000 miles since he fixed up my knee in 2003, he bragged to his receptionists.  I asked him specifically if I've damaged the knee at all from my running.  He said the MRI just shows what he did with the surgery, no new problems.   So what have I done?  "Overuse."  He couldn't rule out a stress fracture, but didn't seem very concerned about doing anything more to find it.  He did say that he should have ordered a brain exam.

He prescribed a steriod to be taken this week which should bring down all the swelling and solve the bursitus.   As we walked down the hall to the front desk, he yelled out and pointed to me limping, "I didn't do this to him!  He did it to himself."   He got me crutches for the next few days.   Hopefully I'll start mending now.

Some progress. Mornings are always the worst for some reason.  At least with the crutches I didn't have to endure the severe pain walking into the office from the parking lot.  Yesterday it was bad enough that the tear ducts started to flow.

Looks like the steriod is helping some of the problems.  I really don't feel much joint pain anymore which is pretty normal after a 100 within 2-3 weeks.   The main thing remaining is the worst problem going into RR100 and coming out of it:   The pes anserine area. below the knee.  This is where the MCL attaches and three other muscles including the semitendinosis hamstring muscle who's tendon had been sore.  The shin muscle on the other side of the leg also pulls somewhat on that area and that muscle is still tight and sore at times.

The pes anserine area is still swollen bad and when I walk feels like a knife digging in.  Crutches will help avoid that because that pain is only when it bears weight.  Its like a very high shin split.  I think the possibilities are: 1. Just continued pressure on that area.  2. a tear in that area.   3. a stress fracture in that area.   Either way from what I read it will likely be 6-7 weeks.   If things don't improve significantly in two weeks, I'll be back at the doctor and he'll help further....he told me to come back if it doesn't improve.

Improvements seen (I list these for my benefit so I won't doubt that I'm getting better.)

1. No longer much pain on the medial side (inside) of the knee when I rotate the leg in.  The MCL or semitendinosis would sting before and start aching very badly.

2. Much less pain when I try to push aside something with the inside of the foot.

3. Much less pain in the infrapetellar region.  Still pain when I tap there, but much less than the last couple days.

4. Lower leg muscles better, probably from not limping.

More of the same, no real improvement seen.  Yesterday after work was very bad, crippling pain.  But elevation, ice, and Advil calmed everything down quickly for the evening.  No pain when sleeping. Then mornings it all starts over again.  Bad in the mornings, elevation and ice doesn't help much.  Not nearly as bad this morning as yesterday.

Seeing some reaction to the prednisone, not bad, but noticed.  I don't know if it has really helped much yet.

Really bad morning.  Seems like the Tibialis anterior muscle, the shin muscle on the other side of the shin is causing grief.  When it seems to be swolen and sore, everything hurts a ton more.   That muscle strained a little during the first 20 of RR100 and swelled up during the race.  It could be that everything is just swolen more this morning....didn't take Advil, tired of taking drugs.  Tried to walk in from the parking lot without crutches, sick of those things.  Bad decision...could barely move as I approached my office.   Really no improvement this week, so I suspect I'll be back at the ortho next week.  19 days of very slow recovery.  I think there are some good corners downtown where I could bring my crutch, find a tin cup, and get seomething good out of this.

p.m. much better.   However, the drugs caused or triggered what I think is a kidney stone.  When it rains it pours.   Great fun.

Improvement today.  Not sure what helped, compression over night, deep massage, or short workout on the elipitcal and bike.  I suspect the workout helped tighten up the knee getting some pressure off the problem areas.

It is strange that after three weeks, I still have swelling that rotates around. It went down into my lower leg this morning. It really makes me think there is a bad tear or stress fracture somewhere.  That is a long time for swelling to remain.

Best, is no kidney pain for past 12 hours.  Friday morning it was so bad I almost threw up.  Great stuff.  Builds character.

Added up the meager miles this week, about four.  Some on my extended trekking poles (actually crutches).   Gotta have some miles on the board!