Hip Update #3

The doctor walked in on Thursday and said, "unfortunately, I don't have good news for you."  Yeah, somehow I already knew that.

From the diagnosis:

Incomplete medial right femoral neck stress fracture.
Nondisplaced right acetabular labral tear.

Awesome.

There is some good news in all of this.  The doctor is not really concerned about the labral tear.  He said they're very common and shouldn't affect my running and that's probably not what is hurting me.  He said if they had done an MRI on the other hip they probably would have found one there too.  So, for now, we're just going to treat the stress fracture.  Unfortunately, he said because of the location and severity it was going to be a long slow healing.  He told me to expect to not be running for a full 12 weeks.  Y'all, that's the whole summer!  When I do return it's going to take me another 12 weeks to even get to maybe 5-10 miles of running!  And because you can't just cast a hip and let it heal on it's own, I've been forbidden from just about everything.  I'm allowed to walk for daily activities, but no walking for exercise.  No biking.  No anything.  I'm allowed to swim with a pull buoy and lift weights sitting down.  I have another appointment in four weeks to see how the healing is going, and then I might be able to add in some more swimming and MAYBE some spinning.

I've had a lot of people asked me how this happened.  The doctor didn't speculate and neither will I.  I'm a runner.  Injuries happen.  This isn't my first trip down Stress Fracture Lane.  In 2004 I had both a stress fracture in my fourth metatarsal of my right foot and a tibia stress fracture in my left leg.  I was training hard and maybe not taking my nutrition and recovery to the level of my training.  I probably do not have the strength I need in my lower core and outer legs to be at the level of training I was doing.  These are things I will work on when I return.  But, I also know that I have to heal.  As badly as I want to get back out there and as sad as I am to miss basically the rest of the year of racing, I have to get healthy and take care of myself if I want to come back. 

Thursday I was sad and upset.  I had a margarita and ice cream.  I cried and gathered hugs from my boys.  Yesterday I got back in gear.  I ate healthy and went to the pool.  It's going to be a long road, but, for now, I have a positive outlook.  This is certainly a devastating blow, however, I'm trying to think about the positives.  I get to spend the whole summer with my little guy.  I get to enjoy the sunshine and the pool.  I have no set schedule and can do or not do workouts as I please.  I will find new recipes and work on getting healthier, trimmer, and leaner.  I will find lots of books to read.  I will work on getting the house {finally} in order.  And I'll dream of all the races I'm going to do when I get healthy.