Believe to Achieve

4.1 miles.  Back in a lot of pain.  Difficult to get legs to turn over.  Ran in the morning at 8:28 AP.  

Taking Mel and Kim out for Birthday/slash preRACE victory luncheon with the kids as well.  Cafe Rio to the Park.  Kids will probably get McDs or Wendy's.  Melanie is running the UVM.  She is so going to be close or right below a 3 hour marathon!!  We are soooo excited for her. 

Went to chiropracter.  Forgot to mention a few things about Squaw Peak:  I couldn't move my legs UP the steep miles to Windy Pass.  My muscles weren't sore, my lower back was achy (I had taken oodles of ibuprofen by accident.  The nice AS helpers (4- 14.6,  6-  26.2,  and 8-   33.5) had my drop bags and took them  out and offered them to me,  so I accepted.  The achiness was lessened but  I think it contributed to my headache and nausea.  I could not move my legs because of the pain in my lower back.  When I reached the summit and had to traverse downhill mud and snow my hips and ankles were sooooo unstable and then I fell and had to walk even slower.  The nerves in my feet were so on fire that each step was transcending "NO MORE" to my back and up to my brain of course.  Tuesday night the swelling in my back came to a head-- my shins were numb and my feet had lots of pins and needles in them.  I could barely lift my legs to walk up the stairs.  When I laid down I pressed on my lower spine-- sacrum and all the nerves in my lower back itched like crazy and sent out a screamin' firey pain signal to my legs and feet.   My run yesterday was painful-- hard to lift the legs.  All day yesterday my lower back felt very swollen.  I now realize that the reason why I couldn't move in the run was that my leg strength was affected by whatever is intruding upon my lower back.  I am going to make an appt with a specialist to get the test I was supposed to get done two years ago to the day.  I have/had a brain malformation called Chiari.  I got that "fixed" but there is a chance of a tethered cord if the symptoms don't go away.  A tethered cord is when the spinal cord attaches to the end of the spinal column in the sacral region and tugs on the brain and spine causing lots of pain and neurological damage.  I also lost bladder control on this run.  Not the usual dribble but complete water fall of loss continuously without  warning.  I stopped and peed about 10 times between mile 43 and 50 because I felt like I had to go sooo badly.  Another sign.  I went to a specialist two years ago and he said it is most likely I do have one but I needed one more test.  Well I wanted to continue running not have surgery if that came out true so I ignored his orders to get this tested.  My spinal cord lies low on MRI so that is why he supspects it.  The chiropracter yesterday said my sacrum is VERY tight and it is very important to figure this out soon or have permanent damage.  I am at the point where this is hurting my running more and my body that I have no choice then to figure this out very soon.   This would also affect blood flow to my kidneys and then subsequently the adrenals that lie on top of it.  When this is figured all out I should be breaking PRs left and right : D.  I really haven't enjoyed all the drs visits in the past .   A lot of them looking at me like I am just wanting more drugs and others just not having the time to figure things out.  Hence, why the long wait to get to one.  But now I have a new Bishop called last Sunday.  He is a family practice Dr. and surely should know where to go.  He just got back from two years as a military Dr. in Iraq.  Troy is exec. sec. to him so I asked him to figure out who will not stop until answers are found.