Category: Health

Categories
Activities Health Running

My Path Back to Running

“To get to the finish line, you’ll have to try lots of different paths.”
– Amby Burfoot

My shin pain has finally healed, but it hasn’t been easy or quick. Despite resting for most of November, I still had shin pain.  I was pretty much sick with bronchitis for most of the month of December, and I thought after a few weeks of rest, the shin pain would be gone.  But the opposite was happening.

The more I rested, the pain would go away for a day, but as soon as I went on a walk or a light jog the pain would return.  I have read so many articles on shin splints, shin pain, etc., I am like a walking encyclopedia on the subject now.   I tried countless stretches and different running techniques trying to heal them.  While some of these things helped, nothing really “cured” them for good or stopped the pain completely. 

My friend, Alison, recommended a foam roller to me in November, but I had been too busy to get around to ordering one.  I finally did a few weeks ago, and experienced pain using it on my shins that brings tears to my eyes, just thinking about it now. (She warned me it was going to hurt at first!)  But after using it for about five minutes (that was all I could stand), I noticed the deep muscle pain I had around my shins seemed a lot better.  The next morning the pain was almost gone.  That had been the most relief I had experienced up to that point.  

Another friend suggested a walking / light running plan after the shin pain had stopped, and I credit that plan with not only keeping me in the game so to speak, but helping me improve.  I was able to walk and run while I healed, and was doing the 5K distance faster than I had been able to run it previously.  It was really amazing to see that my body was capable of performing like that, but it hardly felt like any work at all.

About two weeks ago, after going for a run on my lunch hour, I had immediate shin pain- again.  I was frustrated why the pain seemed to be gone at times, only to return at other times.  I kept using the foam roller, and worked up to using it for 15 minutes at a time, and the pain was no longer deep- but just more on the surface.  After I was done with the roller, there was no pain at all in my shins.   I started to wonder if it had something to do more with my muscles being weak in my shins.

I came across a very short video a few days later, that has no medical backing whatsoever, but what the person was saying, seemed like it made sense.  They said shin splints and pain in the shins is simply a muscle imbalance.  In short, the shin muscles are not as strong as the calf muscles. They suggested a very simple stretch for five minutes a day, which would strengthen the shin muscles. I figured trying it once couldn’t hurt anything.

Like the foam roller, the stretch hurt!  I was hitting my pillow the last few minutes, but when I was done, there was no pain at all!  Not even light pain.  I was amazed.  I wondered if it was a fluke, but the next day my shins felt wonderful.  I tried the stretch again, and it didn’t hurt quite as bad, and I had the same results. Not only was the pain gone, it wasn’t coming back.  This was right around Christmas, and I have been doing the stretch every other day or so, and I haven’t had any shin pain at all!  Sometimes after running the muscles are tight around my shins, but a few minutes with the foam roller works the tightness out.   I know not everything works for everybody, but this simple stretch, along with the foam roller, really helped relieve my shin pain. 

I also started working with some visualization techniques and started doing more mental preparation.  I realized that I could be in the best physical shape, but if my outlook and thoughts weren’t “in shape,” too, my physical condition will only get me so far.  So much of running success is connected to my thoughts, as I am learning. 

After this work for the last two months, I have decided I am ready to try another 5K race and it is tomorrow.  Alison is going to run in it as well!  It is going to be cold.  It just snowed here, and there is likely to be ice and snow, but I’ve been running for the last few weeks in these conditions.  Yak Trax had been suggested to me several times, and I got a pair last week.  They work awesome on the snow and ice! 

I went on a pre-race run the other day, with the path almost completely covered in snow and ice- most of it wasn’t even plowed or shoveled.  It was impossible to get any kind of pacing down, because it was so uneven and rough.  I am pretty certain the actual race course won’t be this bad, because it is through a town, where most of the streets will at least be paved.  My time for the 5K distance on this run was 29:16. Other than the last 5K race I did this was my second best time ever! 

I have rested, I have rebuilt, and I found my path back.  Now it is time to put it all together and run!  

And I couldn’t be happier.

Categories
Cancer Health Me

Facing My Health Fears

As the last week of 2009 starts, I am struggling with a few health matters I keep putting off.

I “fired” my endocrinologist in November.  I was supposed to have a follow-up apppointment 4 weeks after I started on Synthroid to make sure my dosage was correct, which means I should have been seen in September.  However, they couldn’t fit me in until November.  Fortunately, I had a follow-up appointment with my surgeon in October, and he was able to order the test and confirm my dosage was correct. 

After the errors that the endocrinologist’s office made after my surgery in the summer, I lost a lot of confidence in them.  They did get my initial dosage correct though- the first time, which is almost unheard of.  I was told it could take almost a year for my dosage of Synthroid to be fined tuned.  Several thyroid cancer survivors I know have had their dosages adjusted no less than 6 times, and one person has told me her dosage has been adjusted 12 times in less than a year.

When I knew my dosage was correct in October, I called my endocrinologist’s office and canceled my appointment for November and told them I was going to find a different doctor closer to my home.  I told them I was disappointed with the errors they made, but thankful they were able to determine my correct dosage so accurately. 

So here I am- almost two months later and I haven’t started a search, or let alone been in to see a new endocrinologist.  My surgeon recommended two at the health clinic in town, who he said were trained at the facility of my former endocrinologist.  It would be very easy for me to call and get an appointment, and yet I find myself hesitating. 

Last week I received a reminder postcard from my doctor’s office for my annual exam.  I am due to see her in January.  This was the appointment where she first felt an abnormality in my thyroid last year.  I have put off scheduling that appointment too, because I’m nervous.  I know in reality, the chances of any other major health issue being discovered, is very slim, and I know early detection is the key to everything.  But again, I am hesitating.

I feel like I have just put all the cancer and health issues behind me, and these appointments are reminders that I have to start thinking about it again.  It also is like a  bright flashing light into a dark room, reminding me there are no guarantees, and anything can happen.  I might think I am in good health, and everything is fine, only to discover I have an illness that is out of my control.  The thought has entered my mind more than once- what if they find I have another type of cancer?

I have never been nervous or afraid doctor appointments- I used to like going, to hear everything was fine.  I am not sure  I will ever have that feeling again.  I’m not sure if I will always hear everything is fine anymore.  Not scheduling these appointments means I don’t  have to deal with these feelings right now.   

But yet, by not dealing with these feelings, and not making the appointments, the uncertainty stays with me, and my fears grow- not occupying my thoughts, but just below the surface.  It settles in my mind when I am falling asleep, or it is the first thing I think of when I wake up- am I really okay, or has it been a mistake?

The only way to find out for sure, and to get rid of this doubt is to just make and go the appointments.  I promised myself I would make the appointments before the end of the year, so I now have four days left.  Despite my fears, I know this is a promise I have to keep.     

Categories
Family & Friends Health Holidays Me

It’s A Wonderful Life

244px-It's_A_Wonderful_Life

photo credit by Wikipedia

It’s A Wonderful Life is my favorite Christmas movie.  Growing up, I seemed to watch it several times during the holidays. I haven’t seen it though recently in many years.   

There are so many true-to-life themes in the movie.  The main one being, you never really can know the extent that your life touches others.  Another theme is even though our lives may seem ordinary to us, no life is just ordinary.  Even if we never achieve what we set out to do, or life goes in a totally different direction that what we planned, our life still matters and can be great and inspiring to others by the course it does take.  One of the quotes from the movie is, “every man’s life is important because it touches so many other lives.”  Another theme is we don’t appreciate what we have, or truly understand the blessings we have in our life, until they are taken away.

I find it a little more than just coincidence that I’m thinking about this story and its themes this year, after what has been undoubtedly, the hardest year of my life.  The last twelve months have not been easy.  Cancer and divorce are not easy to face as separate events, and this year they ran parallel for me.  Many times during the year, I could not wait until 2009 was over, and I could put this horrible year behind me.

As I have thought more and more about it, I have realized while the year has been hard, it has not been horrible.  So many positive things have happened as well.  Personally, I have learned many valuable things over the course of the year.  One of which, is you are never really alone.  There are always family and friends that support you.  Because of my illness this year, I found this out to an extent I have never experienced before.  I am not certain that without my illness, I would have ever discovered this. 

The other night, the closing scene from It’s A Wonderful Life popped into my mind.  It is when George sees the inscription in the book from Clarence which says, “remember no man is a failure who has friends.”  This past year by itself was difficult.  But because of my friends and family, it has been a wonderful year.  My children and I are truly blessed.  Thank you all. 

I wish all my family, friends, and blog readers the happiest of holidays, and much happiness, love, and friendship in 2010.  All of us really do, have a wonderful life.

Categories
Health Me Running

Sidelined by Shin Splints-Maybe for Good

A few days after the 5K race last month, my shins hurt a lot and I knew I had shin splints.  The only thing I could do was rest them, which meant not running.  

I sat out for nine days, and I hated it.  I felt like every day I missed running, all the momentum I had gained in the last three months was slipping away.  I tried to be proactive, and I read up on shin splints so I would learn how to treat them, and also how to prevent getting them again.  I think adding sprints to the end of my running is what caused me to get them in the first place.  I increased the speed that I ran these too quickly.

I also learned I wasn’t stretching my calves as well I could have, so I learned some deeper calf muscle stretches, and some other stretches just for the shins.  My two Uncle Mike’s, both former marathon runners, suggested that I start landing on my heel more, versus the front of my foot.  The Chi Running method also incorporates this- and teaches you to put more of your weight in the middle of your foot.

After taking nine days off, and not feeling shin pain, I set out last Tuesday to run again.  I only ran two miles to take it slow.  At first I didn’t feel any pain, but the last quarter mile I started to feel the slightest pain.  Two hours later, my shins hurt again.  Obviously they weren’t healed.  I was bummed, but several people told me, and I read that if you keep running while you have shin splints, it can lead to further damage and even surgery.  I was encouraged that even though I only ran 2 miles, I ran those at an eight minute pace. 

The next few days, my shins started to feel better, but I had come down with a bad cold so I wasn’t going to run in the colder weather while I was sick.  On Saturday, I had no shin pain whatsoever, and my cold was getting better.  I decided to try out the 3.2 miles for a 5K distance, but go very slowly, incorporating the new running methods I have read about.

I started out well- there was no pain at all.  But I noticed right away landing on my foot differently, changed the pacing I was used to.  This caused my breathing to be off, and as a result, I got a terrible pain in my side.  Just like when I first started running!  I realized I was going to have to find my pacing and breathing all over again!   I decided to concentrate on that, and completing the 5K distance for the rest of the run. 

When I was about half-way through, I got a shooting cramp in my thigh.  That had never happened before to me at all, and I think it was from the new way I was landing.  I never did find my breathing and pacing rhythm, and at the end of the run, I realized I forgot to time myself.  About the only success I had was there was no shin pain, and I was able to run the 5K distance with a cramp in my side and thigh.  Not exactly what I was hoping for.

If I decide to keep running, I am going to have to start out slowly again, and build back up to where I was.  I have to start all over again!  I wanted to enter a 5K race this month, but there is no way I am ready for that right now.  I am mad at myself that I got shin splints to begin with- I should have been more careful.  It seems like it is a fine line between pushing yourself to do better, while at the same time not pushing so much that you end up injured.  

I admit after that horrible run on Saturday, I was frustrated and disappointed beyond belief!  I have been thinking about just giving it up.  I wonder if I really have it in me to start from square one again?  I thought about asking a few people that have been really supportive of my running, what they think I should do, but I know I have to make this decision for myself.  It would be easier to not run, and just wait until the weather warmed up and I could start riding my bike again.  After all, I only started out running to run one race, and I accomplished that and more. 

I have no shin pain, and in theory I could start again from square one.  Tuesday is a day I normally run, but I haven’t decided if I am going to start again today.  Part of me tells me not to quit- that I can do this, and another part tells me I’ve done what I set out to do.  Is that enough for me?   Will I always wonder what else I could have accomplished if I stop running now?  Is it worth it to risk more injuries and all the hard work again?

When I can answer these questions, I will have a decision.

Categories
Activities Cancer Health

American Cancer Society Blogger Advisory Council

I am excited to announce that the American Cancer Society formed a new blogger advisory council in September.  Their purpose from the press release: 

The Council members will work with the Society to determine how best to use social media to galvanize the movement for more birthdays in the virtual world by encouraging women to take an active role in fighting cancer. The Society’s movement for more birthdays seeks to save lives from cancer by helping people stay well, helping people get well, by finding cures and fighting back against the disease. 

I am very pleased to let my readers know I am the newest member of the Council!  I am beyond thrilled for this opportunity!  I am looking forward to working with the other Council members, and providing additional ways to help all cancer patients fight their cancers.

I obviously have a keen desire in raising awareness on some of the issues around thyroid cancer, many which I have written about on my blog.  I feel working with the American Cancer Society on this new council will maximize and build awareness for thyroid cancer.  

To all my blog readers with cancer who have shared your stories, your fears, your struggles, your triumphs, and comments with me, thank you.   Hearing your stories helped me understand I wasn’t the only one experiencing many of the feelings and issues I had when fighting thyroid cancer.  These stories, and my own experience has made me realize how much more support thyroid cancer patients need. 

I am honored to be able to serve on this new council, and I plan to make sure our experiences with thyroid cancer will raise awareness and provide help and support for all cancer patients and their loved ones.