Runner Insight

 ^ Click Arrow To Listen

Imagine you’re in bed one morning, and you sneeze.  Now that may not seem significantly life-altering, and you may be asking yourself (or me), “So what?”  Well, that was the catalyst that sent my back into some sort of spasm on Dec 30^th, the day before New Year’s Eve this winter. 

I had been having some mild lower back pain off and on for the past couple of weeks, but I thought it was from shoveling snow. But this pain resulting from an innocent little sneeze was something entirely different from just sore muscles. 

I hadn’t really ever had serious back pain before, so needless to say, I was concerned.  I rolled myself out of bed, but found the pain too severe to stand, let alone walk!  I ended up crawling, and feeling faint and sick from the pain. Okay this was not going well at all. And all this from just one little well-intentioned sneeze…who knew how fragile we are?

I managed to get dressed in my sweats and then crawled like a lumbering tortoise to the living room, (I swear it was literally that slow) where I tried to sit in the recliner.  That lasted less than a minute, as the pain in my lower back and right leg was way too much when I was in an upright sitting position. I got back down on the floor on my hands and knees and curled up like a rolly-polly bug. This was the only position I could tolerate.

My partner, obviously concerned that I was rolling around the floor like a beach ball, asked if we should maybe go to the E.R.? Of course I said no at first…I almost always do.  But upon consideration, realizing that there was no way I could work in this condition, I soon agreed.

But first I wanted to take a shower.

“What? Why? Let’s just throw a hat on your head, brush your teeth, and call it good. Nobody cares. Besides, you can’t even stand up. How are you going to take a shower?” 

Good point. 

I managed to get into the front seat, and was instantly sorry for that decision.  I endured the agony of the seated position for a couple of minutes. Then a couple of blocks later at a stop sign, I crawled into the back seat, and resumed my fetal position.

Since I had been curled up like a rolly-polly bug in the back seat for the 10 to 15 minute ride, by the time we got to the hospital my back didn’t feel so bad. As we entered the hospital, I was walking nearly normally. I said, “Maybe I’ll be okay. Let’s go home.”  Since I previously hadn’t been able to sit without excruciating pain, T, in her infinite wisdom, told me to sit down in the wheelchair at the Emergency Room entrance to see how my back felt.  The instant I sat down, I could feel my back start to pull and the pain seared my back again and continued down my right leg. That decision made, we proceeded to the E.R. check in. 

There was no one in front of us, and I was processed quickly.  A nurse named Kim took my blood pressure and my history, as she helped me get comfortable on the exam bed. Lying on my left side, with a pillow between my knees helped to relieve the pain a little.

Dr. Westin would be coming on shift in 15 minutes. It would be faster to wait for him, than have the other ER doctor see me, as he had 8 patients in his care at the moment.  So we were happy to wait a few minutes.  As promised, the Doctor arrived in the exam room in about 15 minutes. 

He had me lie on my back and raise each leg, while he gently pushed down.  When I raised my right leg, it was painful.  He looked at my back and had me get up and do some bends. He came to the conclusion that it was my sciatic nerve.

He thought that I may have had some injury to my disk causing the nerve to become irritated and inflamed.  He prescribed steroids, pain killers and muscle relaxants. He told us his mother-in-law was now his best friend after she had sciatica and he prescribed steroids. He reassured me that they should start to kick in within a day or so.  He told me the sciatica didn’t seem too severe yet, but if I had weakness in my legs to come back right away.

So with Rx in hand, we left the ER and went to the Pharmacy.  It was going to be about 20 minutes for the prescription to get filled. I was of course tucked away in the back of the van, starting to feel pretty good from the pain killer I was given in the ER, so I could stand to wait 20 minutes or so. 

We decided to drive over to the Post Office to pick up our mail while we were waiting, since it was only a few blocks away.  When T came back to the car with the mail, she mentioned that we had received what looked like a gift from our Financial Advisor, Judy.  I figured maybe it was a calendar, as she gave my mom one. 

 “No,” T said, “It feels more like a box of chocolates.” 

 Chocolate? Did someone say chocolate?

Still in my curled up position on the back seat, I insisted on having the package. T passed it back to me, and I ripped into it like a hungry monkey…Hey my back hurt, not my stomach! 

Now with pain pills and chocolate on board I was pretty much set, life was good…Pain pills talking… except for my Starbucks…which we had to stop for on the way home. Now life was complete…

When we got back home, T made me a cozy cocoon on the couch where I stayed for most of the day, dozing on and off. 

Part two will be coming on Monday…so stay tuned!!

How ‘bout it?

-Vision Runner

Popularity: 25% [?]

^ Click Arrow To Listen

So off I went to the ER to have my arm checked out. As I was giving my information to the ER clerk, a nurse approached and told me to take my rings off.  Good idea. I hadn’t even thought about that! My arm had started to swell and I started to panic a bit as I struggled to get them off!  But after much twisting and pulling, as well as a little wincing and moaning, they came off.

After I was registered, they took me to an exam room to wait for the X-ray tech to take me to Radiology. He came to get me with a wheelchair. I really didn’t need that, but he said why not get a free ride? So I accepted.

When we got to Radiology, he told me that I would have to straighten my arm, so he could get the picture he needed.  But my arm refused.  He had me kneel on a stool with a pillow on it. I had my elbow at a 90 degree angle.  He told me to stretch it out so that it was laying flat on the table.  My stiff and swollen arm really did not want to stretch flat, and any little movement was terribly painful.

As I tried to lay my arm the way he wanted, I told him I was feeling faint and he told me to breathe in through my nose out through my mouth.  So I did.  I think that just made me hyperventilate, because the next thing I knew I was spinning and twirling with all sorts of bright pretty colors swirling around my head.  I was noticing how great it was that I wasn’t getting sick, as I usually do when spinning around in circles.  Then all of a sudden I thought “I can’t be doing this, I’m supposed to be at work.”  My eyes flew open.

There I was on the floor, with a pillow under my head, and the tech standing over me saying, “Whoa! You went down fast!”  Well duh!  I warned him I was feeling faint!  Then I noticed my arm was now stretched out fully.  I said “I guess you can take that x-ray now.”

As he wheeled me back to the exam room saying, “Aren’t you glad for the wheelchair now?” I was thinking “Hmmm, I don’t think I would have needed one, had you just listened to me when I told you I was going to faint.”  I found out years later when I cracked the other elbow that it was not necessary for him to make me stretch out my arm to get the x-rays they needed!

Once back in the exam room, I promptly got sick.  My nice little run in to work this evening was not turning out at all the way I had planned!  The ER doctor came in and told me I had cracked the radial head of my right elbow.  He put it in a sling and gave me some pain meds, saying I should take the sling off in a day or so and then start to use my arm without lifting anything heavy.

It was now after 1 a.m., and my friend Melinda was waiting to see how I was before she left to go home after her shift ended at midnight.  When she saw how pale I was and my arm in a sling, she called the supervisor who got my shift covered, while Melinda took me home.  It was around 2 a.m. when I finally got into bed. And I had to miss the next two days of work.

So I learned a couple of very good lessons from this experience to carry me forward in life:

First:  Don’t Run In The Dark!

Second:  Don’t Run In The Dark, Even With A Light!  You’re Blind!!!!

Duh….

How ‘bout it?

-Vision Runner

<–>

Popularity: 1% [?]

 ^Click Arrow Above To Listen 

I wanted to tell you about a great gift I received a couple of years ago. 

But first, the story leading up to it…. 

A little over two years ago, I was running home from work shortly after 6 o’clock in the morning. It was September, and getting to the point in the year where it was soon to be too dark to run home that early. I knew within the next few days, I was going to have to start walking instead of running home in the mornings. But I felt it was still light enough to run home on that day. I was following the asphalt walk/bike path across town, when I tripped over a bike lying in the path. Now, even though I have vision issues, and the lighting was not ideal, I’m not sure anyone would have seen this bike. 

So this (probably) college-age kid was sleeping on a bench next to the path, and had just left his bike lying on the path next to the bench. Of course, I didn’t see the bicycle. So all of a sudden, there I was, sprawled out like a pancake spreading in a pan: trying to stop my fall with my hands and hitting my chin hard on the asphalt.  

The guy immediately tried to help me up. But I waved him off, still checking to see if I had all my teeth, grumbling “Just leave me alone for a minute.”  I knew that when I try to get up too fast, I have a tendency to faint. Something I only needed to find out once before I learned my lesson. 

Anyway, I was angry! This kid had just left his bike laying there in the middle of the path! How stupid!  I told him so, too. He kept asking me if I was okay, and was profusely apologetic. I said I would live.  

It was very strange, just laying there in the path, holding my elbow. I stayed that way for a couple of minutes, as I was going to make sure I wasn’t light-headed before I got up. So we talked. I figured I really didn’t want to yell at him too much. He seemed sincerely sorry, and I didn’t want to get him too agitated at me: after all, it was just past 6 a.m., and he was a stranger out early in the morning…You get my drift.  

So after a few more minutes, I collected myself, and decided I was in good enough shape to continue my run home. You may ask (as many others did) why I didn’t call T to come get me. Well let me assure you, I would have, if I had been truly hurt. But I didn’t want to hang around spending any more time with the guy who had caused me to fall in the first place.  Plus, I knew that I could get home faster by running, rather than waiting for T to come get me.  

When I got home, my arm had stiffened up a bit more, which made it difficult to get undressed and cleaned up. So I woke T up by saying “Don’t worry, but I fell.”  Prefacing the whole thing with “Don’t worry” wasn’t really effective, as she jumped up immediately, worried, and asked if I was okay. I told her my elbow hurt, and she asked if I wanted her to take me to the hospital.  No, not really. There was nothing they could do for me. I had fallen like that once before and hurt my other elbow, the same way, and there was nothing that could be done. And I was tired, and who wants to go to the hospital after working at the hospital all night long? I had just got off work from there! T helped me get cleaned up, and in to bed I went.  

Around 11 a.m. I woke up, and my elbow had swollen so that any little movement was hugely painful. So then I began to worry. Maybe I had hurt it worse than I thought.  With very little resistance on my part, T persuaded me to go to the E.R. 

There they took x-rays, and let me tell you, that was painful, as they needed me to bend and move my arm in ways it just didn’t want to. When the doctor came in, he told me just what I thought all along: I had cracked the radial head of my left elbow.  So he put my arm in a sling, gave me some good pain meds, and made a follow-up appointment for me to see a specialist in about 3 days. 

Okay, now this is where the passionate runner in me rears her obsessive head…

When I go see the specialist, the doctor told me to get rid of the sling, and start using my arm. He said that it would be sore for a while, but the best thing was to use it, without lifting anything heavy. I then asked him if I could run.  He just looked at me, as if I had two heads. He firmly replied that he would not recommend it. If I fell again, before it was completely healed, I could do permanent damage.

I had been in training for my first half-marathon, and it was coming up in about a month.  “Well then,” I asked, “When can I run?”  He thought probably about six weeks. I said “How about two?”  He ended up reluctantly compromising with me at three weeks, but he was serious about the warning. If I fell on it again, I was taking a huge risk of serious long-term injury. Hearing him, but pretty much trying to disregard his warning, all I heard in my heart was “Victory!”  I knew it would be cutting it close, but I could still run the half-marathon. It would be tough with three weeks off of my training regimen the month before the race, but I was determined. Obviously I had the strength of will to create whatever results I wanted; I had just won the test of wills against my doctor…       I can manifest miracles…. 

Well I didn’t re-injure myself. I did run my first half-marathon, and I did it in just over 2 hours. So I was pretty proud of that! 

Now, to get back to the point of this whole story….. 

Shortly after my close encounter with a bicycle and the asphalt, T was reading one of my Runner’s World magazines, and saw an ad for the RoadID. It’s an ID with a velcro strap for athletes to wear with emergency contact information on it. It’s a great idea, as oftentimes athletes, bicyclists, race-walkers, and especially runners don’t have pockets to keep an ID in. And if something happened to them, the medical responders wouldn’t know who they were or who to contact. They have different styles, but she got me the wrist band and the shoe ID. They are laser-engraved with all my contact information. It also indicates that I am legally blind. Before I got the RoadID a couple of years ago, I used to carry a piece of paper with some contact info on it.  But it would get tattered and hard to read. Then I would forget about getting a new one, and end up out running without any identification on me at all.  Not smart for anyone, but especially absurd for me.

www.RoadID.com

Now when I go out for a run, I always have the RoadID on my shoe. I wear the one on my wrist as well; of course, manifesting that they will never be needed for emergency purposes. But it’s one more layer of protection, just like the flashers and lights I use to increase my visibility. In fact, I’m getting my mom a RoadID. She likes to walk, and right now all she carries, when she remembers, is a piece of paper with my phone number on it.  So I plan on getting her one she can put on her keychain. 

The RoadID Shoe ID

Oh yeah, I have to tell you: after checking out their website recently, I see that RoadID.com now carries different colors of the wrist strap….When I got mine they only had black. You can probably see it in several of my running photos. Now I can get all kinds of different colors to match all my different running outfits!! Yee-Ha!

How ‘bout it?

Vision Runner

P.S. Just so you know, this endorsement was not paid for by RoadID.com or anything like that. We use this every day, so the high recommendation we offer of the RoadID product is unsolicited and heartfelt. However, I will also tell you that if you click on any of the links on this blog, and make a purchase, I will get paid a small commission.

Popularity: 1% [?]