12/11/2011 - 12/17/2011

After looking me over, his initial comment was, “Well, that’s a strange injury.” He pulled out a chart and attempted to tell me the different things that he thought it could be. Muscle, ligament, and nerve damage could all be possibilities. One more possibility was more alarming than those three combined….a stress fracture. Tom did say that he didn’t think it was the latter, but to make absolutely sure, he said he wanted me to get an X-ray. So, after some ultrasound therapy, some stretching, and ice and stim, I headed home dejected again. It wasn’t until, December 14th, that I officially realized that there is no way I can continue on my training plan. I’ve already missed two 7 mile runs, an 8 mile run, a 16 mile run, and a 20 mile run. My upcoming schedule is just as daunting too. At this point, if I don’t have a stress fracture, I will just have to “play it by ear.” I know now that the possibility of going sub 4 hours is also starting to fade rapidly. While I’m not out of this game yet, time is ticking away.

Ice & Stim at Tom's:



Since, my doctor’s appointment was scheduled for 12:00, I got to the imaging center around 11:40 for my X-rays. After some initial paperwork and a $40 co-pay, I was quickly taken back for my pictures. After four different angles, and about 10 minutes, I was sent upstairs to see the doc…..right on time! After getting upstairs and handing over MORE paperwork (about 10 pages worth that I had to fill out before getting there), I took a seat in the waiting room. Several minutes later, the gal from behind the glass comes out and says, “The doctor won’t be here until about 1:00, so you can go get lunch if you want.” Um, what? Taken back a bit, I told her that, “I’d figure it out.” As the time passed, I became more and more frustrated, especially when I remembered one of the clauses I agreed to when turning in my paperwork…”If you are more than 15 minutes late, you will have to reschedule, and pay a $50 rescheduling fee.” So, if I was 15 minutes late, the doc wouldn’t see me, I’d have to reschedule, and pay $50, but he can be an HOUR late with no ramifications. Whatever. Eventually, he came in and I was called to the back. I was taken back a bit when he came in wearing traditional blue scrubs, but donning a camouflage Harley Davidson ball cap. He poked, bent, and tapped various parts of my knee while asking a variety of questions. Ultimately, he took me out into the hall to show me the results of my X-rays. He said that, structurally, my knee was perfect. Nothing seemed out of place or wrong. That led him to believe that the pain was due to some kind of nerve irritation or damage. He prescribed some kind of cream that was supposed to be a pain killer, nerve desensitizer, and anti-inflammatory all wrapped into one. The next course of action, however, was to have an MRI done. He said that if that didn’t reveal any definitive answers, the final step would be to do some kind of nerve mapping test that involved small needles placed into my knee. This is where I started to question how badly I really wanted to be a runner. After some parting small talk about how I could continue to train lightly, I paid my $50 co-pay, and was gone. I stopped by Tom’s office to make another PT appointment so that he could do a gait analysis (he said he’d only do this if my injury wasn’t a fracture). Later in the day, the apothecary store, that was concocting my mythical knee cream, called and told me that the 8 week supply was gonna run me $60. Mo money, mo money, mo money! Today was also the day that reality REALLY set in. I’m probably not going to run the marathon at all, not even the half. At this point, I’ll probably just stop running for a period of time and slowly start over using that cream.

PT evaluation = $87
X-rays = $40
Doc = $50
Prescription = $60
Still not knowing what the hell is going on with my knee = Priceless

X-ray machine set exactly at knee height: