Mary’s “Injury”
….and I’m putting injury in quotations because I’m still hoping that nothing it really wrong and I’m just being a super big baby. Basically, I “injured” my ankle on Saturday at soccer (my cross training day). I am super bummed out because I hate being sidelined for any reason, and this injury is threatening my chances of playing soccer (season starts in two weeks) and running my marathon.
I was also REALLY excited to run on Sunday, because it was SUPPOSED to be my first “long” run. I was going to go for 9 miles and was really excited to take on the task! Weird, how many people do you think are THAT disappointed they have to miss their 9 mile run?
But I really was!
Next Sunday is only a 6 mile run, so if I’m better by then, I’m planning on replacing the 6 miler with 9. Just because I’m super eager to get some real mileage under my belt! I think it will definitely help my confidence to know that I banged out nearly 1/3 of the 26.2 miles I’ll be running on May 4th (health permitting).
In the meantime, for those who want full details, check out the email I sent to my physical therapist friend who lives in New Jersey and is way too far away for me to go to in person. I know she can’t diagnose me, but I think in sending it, I’m hoping she’ll let me know that everything’s okay and I don’t need to see a doctor.
Let me give you the full break down and see if you have any thoughts.
1) The actual injury occurred on Saturday morning around 9:30 (early into practice). When the ball hit my foot, I felt instant and sharp pain (but sort of like you’d feel when you twist your ankle….normally for me, my ankle never sprains, I just run it off
and I’m good again in 10 minutes or so). In this case, I stopped the drill (I was running practice…lucky!!) for a water break,and took a break while we set up goals for the next scrimmage. The pain mostly went away (it still hurt more than usual, but it was light enough that I forgot about it during practice and when practice ended). While playing I was able to pivot sharply on it with no trouble and also take shots with the injured food with no pain.
2) Approximately 40 minutes or so of sitting stagnant (after practice), I had completely forgotten about the injury and felt no pain. But when I stood up, it hurt really, REALLY badly. I went home and put my foot in hot water for 20 minutes, then showered and iced it for another 40 minutes or so. That was all the icing I gave it, but I elevated it for a bit and also rested.
…..fully expecting that the pain would entirely disappear…..
but it didn’t.
In fact, walking down stairs (not up) was painful to the point that I didn’t even want to do it. I tried for a bit, but then would end up leaning my weight heavily on the railings to help myself down the stairs, or just hopping on one foot, using the railing as a brace.
By now I was starting to feel like this might be something more serious. I took a couple muscle relaxors left over from my car accident, which helped a bit, but I only had two pills left so that’s like 8 hours worth of less pain.
4) Sunday morning when I woke up my foot felt alright (while lying in bed). Again, once I was up and walking around I started to feel pain again. Enough to basically keep me sidelined all day - not a lot of walking if I could help it.
5) Monday morning, same thing. I woke up with no pain, but after 50 paces or so I start to feel pain. At the office today, there is no pain while I sit, and for the first 20 steps or so I doesn’t hurt, but once I walk further the pain is stronger and stronger, to the point that I have to force myself to not limp, and sometimes I can’t help it. I’ve noticed that I’ve begun to turn my foot out slightly (walk duck-footed) with my left foot, to prevent limping and make walking less painful.
6) As an additional note, I also remembered that on Tuesday night, when I was playing soccer, I was taking a shot with my left foot (the same foot I injured on Saturday) and my calf cramped up intensely when I shot the ball. It hurt super bad, but then disappeared within 10-15 seconds, and I had no more problems with it, so I didn’t think anything of it. Looking back, I wonder if it was connected at all with what happened to my foot on Saturday. I’m not one to get cramps, so I was afraid at first that I had actually pulled my calf, or strained it when I shot the ball. Turns out though it must’ve just been a cramp because it went away almost immediately.
7) I’m attaching a photo to show you where the pain is in my foot. There are two areas, one marked in black (that is the intense pain) and the second labelled “2” in gray (less intense). The black pain is sort of right behind my ankle on the inside of my leg, and stretches down to the heel of my foot, then up above the ankle. This is the pain I feel when I walk.
The gray pain I can feel when I’m sitting and I point my toes….this actually just feels like a super intense stretch, but I’m worried it’s in someway associated with Pain #1.
