The Knee, Part 2

Today is day 4 of no running. I have been icing. I have been (sorta) foam rolling. I have an appointment at lunch tomorrow for an MRI. Cross your fingers my chiro is wrong and it is nothing serious.

The Knee

I tried to get in to see a chiropractor as soon as possible after GTIS when my knee gave me all that trouble around mile 10. Unfortunately, the soonest I could get in was the following Thursday, the day before I was leaving for West Virginia. The initial exam was just taking some x-rays and "scans" and just an initial diagnosis. No treatment was done. As you probably know, the knee got WAY worse during the half I did in West Virginia. I had already made a follow-up appointment for Monday when I got back.

The news is not good. He is about 95% sure that it is a lateral meniscus tear:

Source

What does this mean? Ugh. First step is to stop running. Not permanently, of course. He didn't necessarily SAY I need to take the week off, but that is what I am planning on doing. He seems to think that I can continue to "try" to run, I will just need to stop as soon as anything hurts. Which, lately, has been about three miles. So instead of pushing it, I'm going to do some SUPER BORING cycling and elliptical this week - maybe 2 days worth. I will not even TRY to run until my 5k with A on Sunday. Again, I can walk that if necessary.

After that, well, I'm pretty screwed. Obviously, I have always had a pretty full race schedule. First on the chopping block is likely the local half marathon I was going to run on the 8th. Next to go will likely be the Bear Chase 50. I've run less than 150 miles in the last 2 months, and will likely not be healthy or healed enough to run that distance in less than 6 weeks. Tentatively, I might have to drop to the half or completely miss RnR Denver. Other than those races, I have Disneyland half in two weeks. I plan on still doing that race as I can walk it if necessary. If I can take it easy, I may still be able to finish state 50 in Vermont in mid October. The future of the Palo Duro 50k and Marine Corps? Up in the air.

Basically, no one can really predict how long a tear will take to heal. It may not heal completely at all, which means I will have to have surgery. That is obviously the worst case scenario, as he said that a surgery for a meniscus tear is WORSE than an ACL reconstructive surgery. When I had that on my OTHER knee, I was out of commission for months.

Depressed. Sad. Mad. This freaking sucks.

On top of that, my right leg is apparently longer and I have scoliosis in my next. My calves are still ridiculously tight, although the chiro is putting that concern on the back burner while we worry about everything else. My body is super out of alignment. I'm practically falling apart.

Anyway. Treatment is a crapton of foam rolling, icing, and not doing anything other than RESTING. I loathe resting. I don't even know how to rest.

The end.