Devastating

I don't mean to be overly dramatic and I hope that I am...but my running has not improved. It has been weeks after my mysterious hip injury at the National Half Marathon in DC. I've followed doctor's orders and taken pain pills, taken muscle relaxers and stopped running. The result is the pain and mobility issues are much better, but I am not able to run like I used to.

Last Tuesday, I decided to walk around the track with the rest of the early morning cruisers who are working off last night's dessert. After a half mile of fast walking I could feel some mild discomfort. It's like you know that something is "just not right."

I stopped and did some mild stretching to get the muscles loose and to see if I could work this area out. Mind you, yesterday I had an incredibly hard Swedish massage and though at times I cringed, I felt fantastic afterwards. My hip felt like a million bucks. In retrospect, I should have tried running on it immediately.

After walking a few laps, I decided to lightly run around the track. Laps one and two were hesitate and I focused on taking only short choppy steps. As I rounded the corner at lap three I could feel the gnawing pain return to my left hip. I decided to push a fourth lap. The discomfort was steady and not improving. At that point I gave up and headed back to my cabin. Mother f-er!!

After working so hard to improve my running over the last 10 months and finally finding an outlet I truly enjoy, it is truly devastating to not be able to just go out and run. If I was a crier, I could just sit down and cry.

Luckily, all hope is not lost. I still have an orthopedist out there that I have to see. The tough part is describing the pain since I can bike, swim and walk --- though long periods of walking and stair climbing I've noticed cause some mild discomfort.

If I had to guess, based on no medical training what so ever, I'd say that at times it feels like something in my hip is either rubbing or sliding out of place. Of course now that I've said that I have nightmares of the woman I met in the Galapagos who was in her early 40's, was an athlete and had double hip replacement surgery...or...visions similar to those who have to get knee replacement surgery. I'm sure the new doctor will say that it's an overuse injury. The next piece he tells me will be the piece that scares me.

As always, I gotta say..."Why me?" I've had so may bumps, bruises, scars, surgeries and near death experiences that I feel as if I'm finally owed some sort of break already. Grrrr!