Pretty much, I'm hard core

Oh, you're not hard core,

Unless you live hard core.

And the legend of the double stress fracture was way hard coreeeeeeeee!

(School of Rock, anyone?)

Well, remember those shin splints I mentioned? The ones that have been around, plaguing, mocking, and deterring my progress since September? Yeah, those ones. Well, in spite of all my careful resting, icing, stretching, easing back into workouts, and STILL - three months later- not running or doing anything high impact, they haven't healed. I've had the nagging little thought for a while that I probably needed to go see the doctor and get some physical therapy. But I've been there, done that a little too recently (physical therapy isn't covered by my insurance) and have been putting it off.

Last week after a zumba class, my right foot (same side as the painful shin) started killing out of nowhere. It just hit randomly like half an hour after class and it was so bad I couldn't put weight on it or hardly touch my foot. I didn't remember hurting myself or landing funny or anything. So, I gave in and decided I had better get to the doctor before things got any worse. The good news was that after a few days of rest, my foot felt about as good as new. But I kept the doctor appointment anyways because I knew I needed to get my shin looked at.

After describing what had been going on to the aide, they took me over for x-rays. When the doctor came in to see me, the first thing he said was, "Well your x-rays were very interesting."

Excellent.

Then he showed me the x-rays and explained that I had a stress fracture in both my tibia and fibia.

"You win the award for the toughest patient of the day. I can't believe you've kept going all this time with this," he told me. The good news is that he thought it was healing. And he said I could keep exercising - low impact and no running being the only stipulations. He referred me to a physical therapist who specializes in running and will help me eventually to correct the mechanics of my running and hopefully avoid re-injury in the future (well that and some quality running shoes and avoiding running on concrete).

The remark the physical therapist, PT in training, and aides have all had on first look at the x-rays is, "Oh, wow!".

That isn't super comforting. But hopefully I'll be on the mend soon! Although we tried a gait analysis and I ran for about ten minutes yesterday and I am in a lot of pain today. So, I don't think I'm going to be running again super soon. (But maybe that half in the summer, Ju? ;) They said that would be a reasonable goal to work towards. And I got a good recommendation for a fun race in a gorgeous setting.)

Anyways, meh. Boo stress fractures. Here's to no more injuries and successful physical therapy!!