Pinched Nerves and Stress Fractures

To anyone reading this, I have a favor to ask of you. Please read this week’s blog slowly, since it took me a hell of a long time to type it out.

Let me explain. One day last week I woke up with a horrible pain in my right shoulder that radiates both up my neck and down my arm every time I move. Now, picture how many times in a day you move your arm, and then imagine a horrible shot of pain each time. That illustrates half of what’s hurting me.

The other problem started during my 15 mile run a few weeks ago when the top of my left foot started bothering me. The pain stopped when I stopped running, but came back in my 18 mile run and again in a short little 6 miler I did last week.

Both Peter K and an orthopedist diagnosed my shoulder problem actually as a pinched nerve in my neck. The orthopedist took x-rays, and when she looked at them with me, the first words out of her mouth were “Wow! No wonder why you’re in pain,” which although it helped me to feel like I wasn’t exaggerating, they weren’t exactly the words I needed to hear.

The same orthopedist also checked out my foot and thinks I have the onset of a stress fracture which is a technical term for “if I’m right, then you’re not running in the marathon this year.” The doctor told me no running for a week, and if it still hurts to come back for an MRI and a definite diagnosis.

I got my diagnoses the day before my last triathlon of the season, and to give you an idea how much pain I’m in, when both the orthopedist and Peter K told me not to do the triathlon, I didn’t even argue.

Peter always tells me that things happen for a reason, and after two days of doing a whole lot of nothing, I agree. By being unable to move without pain shooting down my arm, I’ve sat pretty idle which seems to be helping my foot out a lot.

I know what you’re thinking: “Alison has actually gone two days without exercising???” Well, that’s not entirely true. I’ve done several laps of walking from my couch to the kitchen and back again. Apparently the saying goes, “Starve a cold, feed a pinched nerve and injured foot.” When able-bodied, I eat roughly 9 meals per day. Before you keel over in shock, please know that a “meal” might consist of an apple, or 7 almonds. So, I don’t EAT every two hours; I eat every two hours. Big difference. The problem is that my workouts are so big that I use up those calories pretty easily. But since I’ve barely burned a single calorie in two days, I don’t need all this food.

My brain is completely intact, so I keep telling myself that I’m not hungry, I don’t need to eat. But unfortunately “Fat Girl” is my nursemaid and keeps moving me towards the fridge and the pantry. The two positives are that: 1) I’m in too much pain to cook which only leaves me with ready to eat stuff, and 2) That I’ve been eating healthy for so long that the only junk food in my kitchen is some candy up in Percy, my family’s plastic Halloween pumpkin (which my daughter named Percy. Just do what we do – don’t ask, just accept it), that is on a shelf so high up that my 6’4” husband needs to stand on tiptoe to reach. Since I’m only 5’0”, I can barely see Percy let alone reach him, keeping the candy well out of my reach (and for those of you trying to picture my husband and me together, it looks as comical as you are imagining).

A long time ago Peter K taught me to always make the best food choices possible. So, I’ve spent the last two days trying to only grab fruits for snacks, or drink a glass of water before I eat to make sure that I’m truly hungry and not just thirsty. Reflecting back on my last two days of not moving, I think I’ve done pretty well. I may have snacked a little more than I needed to, but all my snacks were healthy: apples, grapefruits, carrots. I’m also not going to beat myself up for overeating. I’m injured, in pain, and possibly giving up my dream to run in the 2011 New York Marathon. My point is, I’m human. This weekend I’ve done the best that I can; it’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good.

Here’s hoping that next week’s blog is typed with both hands, after I’ve run 15 miles or scaled a building or something like that. My plan is take it one day at a time, listen to my body, and make good food choices. Eventually my body will heal, and when it does, I want it as ready as it can be to pick up my workouts where I left off.