Scene: the sweat-soaked, MRSA-ridden, gritty, black stretching mats at the Y. My face is planted in a pool of someone else’s grime while I try and stretch my quads. I am trying not to inhale. Grossed out? It gets better. I look up to see my friend Bobby (Hi, Bobby!) taking off his running shoe and gasp as his sock is covered in oozy bright red blood, nearly to his ankle. Bobby seems unperturbed. “That’s funny,” he says. “I didn’t even feel anything!”
“Blister?” I ask. I shouldn’t be grossed out – a mother who is a nurse breeds that out of you right quick – but I suppress a shudder. A better friend would run to get him paper towels and a band-aid. In this instance I don’t even qualify as a decent friend as all I can do is stare.
“Nope,” he answers as he peels off the sock.
Fresh blood can look like a lot more than it is. Now I consider running to get band-aids – to put over my eyes. I blame childbirth. Ever since my little monkeys started spewing bodily fluids I’ve gotten a lot wussier. My mother is not proud.
“Sharp toenail,” he finally declares. I faint.
Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?
As if Bobby’s bloody toe wasn’t bad enough, Gym Buddy Allison’s been nursing a “pinching pain” that starts on the outside of her hip and runs down the back of her leg. We don’t know how she did it or even what it is but it keeps the poor girl up at night it hurts so bad. Plus she can’t sit. (Although she and Gym Buddy Megan did do a hilarious “You can’t have me Lucky Charms” jig at the gym this morning so you know it’s not fatal.) Gym Buddy Daria’s elbow still hurts from several months ago. Krista is still recovering from her surgery. Megan’s back still spasms. Injuries and exercise, sadly, go hand in hand. (Knock on wood, I am not injured.)
Ace bandages and knee braces are the fashion statement du jour on the treadmill. Bruises (hah – you should see the bruise on my chest bone from bouncing the bar off of it doing a clean and jerk!), wrist straps and weight belts abound on the weight floor (but no, all the shaved heads are not indicative of a mental injury or a Britney fetish – although I’d love to see you ask one of those lifters about it!) In fact, if you pick any random person at the gym I bet you a thirty-pound dumbbell dropped on your chest that they have an injury story to tell. If they’re really, um, lucky they even have their very own pet injury – one they can feed & clothe and love just like a Webkin but without the yearly subscription fee!
Do You Really Want to Make Me Cry?
I won’t tell you about the worst exercise injury I’ve ever seen (In high school a soccer player caught his foot in a hole in the grass and went down, breaking his FEMUR. It sounded like a RIFLE going off. The bone came through his SKIN. His coach THREW UP. Sorry, that just popped out. I think I still have PTSD from it.) but I can tell you some things to help avoid exercise injuries.
1. Don’t exercise. Oh, wait. Not an option? Fine. You can do Sit and Be Fit. Mmm… except I bet somebody somewhere has fallen off their chair.
All right – if you exercise you’re going to get hurt. To be fair, if you do anything other than breathe you are going to get injured eventually. Which is why you need to be as smart as you can (wear appropriate clothing, ask for a spot when you need it, stretch properly etc.) but don’t despair when the inevitable occurs. (Knock, knock, knock on wood. Well, at least I think this is wood. If it’s not and I get injured today I’m so suing IKEA.)
Working Around An Injury
1. Rest. I am the worst possible person to talk to about this because as long as I can still get my shoes on, I’m in the gym that day. Hopefully you are not as compulsive as I am. But in case you are, at least try and rest the affected part. If your shins hurt (aHEM), try swimming or bike riding. If your wrists are sore avoid pull-ups and push-ups. The key here is to keep resting your Achilles heel even after it starts to feel better. Depending on the severity of your injury it could take weeks or even months. When I stress-fractured my leg several years ago during my great Over Exercising Debacle I was off all high-impact activity for 6 weeks. If I can do it, anyone can.
Ice, heat, massage and those crazy-fun foam rollers can also do wonders for mild injuries.
2. Get the proper equipment. Don’t let your pride or impeccable fashion sense prevent you from getting those butt-ugly orthopedic shoes or knee brace or basketball goggles (hee!) if you need them. Wear them with pride, bro, wear them with pride!
3. Don’t repeat. This sounds like a total duh but since I am so guilty of this one, I’m going to say it: don’t make the same mistake over again. Even if this means you can’t exercise at the level you used to. If you hurt your knee because you upped your mileage too fast then don’t do it again! Up your mileage slowly next time. Train for the surface you run on. Don’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
4. Strengthen the supporting muscles. I can’t say enough good things about this one. If you have knee pain, do more quad, ham & calf exercises. Stronger legs will help stabilize your knee and help it from going out again. Back pain? Make sure you are doing lots of core exercises. Ask a doc or physical therapist for exercises you can safely do to help with your injured area.
5. Whine a lot. Well, actually, have a good support group. Complaining loudly to a friend makes it feel so much better. Misery loves company. And sympathy. And chocolate.
I probably shouldn’t ask this but I can’t help myself: what’s the worst exercise injury you’ve ever seen? Have you ever had to work around an injury? Anyone have any idea what’s wrong with Allison and have any advice for her??
My scariest injury (although I wasn’t “hurt”) was when I was playing a hockey game the night after I got home from Mexico, still recovering from food poisoning. My equilibrium was still off…and I took a header straight into the boards at full speed. My head snapped back and I could *hear* my neck crack. For a second I was honest to goodness scared that I broke my neck. But, I eventually shook it off and got off the ice.
I’m wincing just reading that – so glad you are ok!
Poor Gym Buddy Allison! Perhaps it’s a hamstring strain or sciatica? This article has a quick little test to figure out if it’s one of those two problems, depending on how your pain is when laying with a let up in the air, foot flexed and unflexed:
http://www.runnersrescue.com/Running_Hamstring_Strain_Injury.htm
HTH!
Oh, and yes, I once pulled a chest muscle while doing a Biggest Loser video – I thought I was having a *heart attack* at first, it hurt SO BAD (and was located on my left side, near my heart). I honestly debated going to the doctor right then and there! I couldn’t do any chest exercises for 8 weeks, picked up again despite the hurt around 12 weeks, and even though that was over two years ago, I still have some twinges of pain when doing especially hard weights with chest muscles.
Ok – I have totally pulled a chest muscle and thought it was a heart attack too!! Hilarious! ALthough I’m sorry that yours is still twingy sometimes:( And thanks for the link – I’ll send it to Al asap!
In my completely unqualified opinion, the description “pinching pain” makes me thing maybe a nerve might be involved in your gym buddy’s injury? And my advice would be for her to let it heal (you mentioned advice like rest and working out other areas in your post).
As for myself, I have never had a sudden injury but the last time I really got into running (with visions of 10 Ks and maybe even a marathon in my head), I developed a pinching pain in my lower back. At first it came and went and I ignored it. Then it got worse and was accompanied by numbness down my left leg. Finally it was so horrible I couldn’t run…all I could do was sit around whining with an ice pack on my back. Turns out I have a bone spur from years of wear and tear and I think my running days are over. But whenever it starts to act up from my other activities, I ice it and rest until the pain goes away. (The bone spur itself is there to stay, since there’s no way I’d consider surgery for such a minor issue.)
As for the worse injury from someone else I knew (luckily I didn’t actually see it)…it was a rock-climbing accident, and my acquaintance (my then-boyfriend’s roommate) died.
Oh wow – I’m so so sorry for your friend’s climbing accident and death. I had a friend die climbing in high school. It was devastating for the whole community.
I think the worst sports injury I ever had the misfortune of witnessing was at a roller derby bout fairly recently. Girl went down and broke her leg in SEVEN places. You could hear it and I’m sure you can imagine pretty accurately what that looked like. I was fairly close to her when she fell (I was taking photos — NO, not OF her falling, but before she fell and after the ambulance left) – there was a pool of something that the ambulance had to clean up and later get sanitized before recommencing.
on another note – I fully agree with taking a break and resting the injury. One of the reasons my shoulder got so messed up is because I kept running despite it popping and eventually enlarged the capsule
Listening to your body can go a long way
Oh gosh – how did you not throw up? I think I would have fainted. Poor girl! And thanks for the advice about your shoulder – I hope it’s feeling better now!
Not going to lie… I sort of shut my eyes. The worst part about the ordeal (well… one of the worst parts) was that I was wearing my Air Show shirt from my military days that said “Medic” on the back in red.. Yes, I was “medically” trained in the Air Force, but I assure you that does not a medic make… It made me feel like a jerk :/
Okay that’s hilarious, I’m sorry!
As you may remember, I hurt my neck/back a few years ago (bulging disk and laptop hunching do not make a good pair). I had to MAJORLY cut back. No working out for a few weeks, then walking, then lite, non-bouncy cardio and MAYBE lifting 2-lb baby weights. I was going nuts at first, but it taught me a huge lesson: My body didn’t fall to pot. Not only did I still look the same, but the less time I spent in the gym, the less obsessed I felt, body image-wise. It allowed me to cut back on my gym time in such a healthy, productive way.
There was also the time I had carpal tunnel surgery and climbed the Step Mill with my paw, all mummy bandaged, held high in the air so as not to attract MRSA. I’m sure I looked TOTALLY sane.
I totally remember your plow-induced neck injury!! And your last sentence made me laugh out loud (which I totally needed today – thank you!)
Thanks for that image, Charlotte, I think the Saw franchise just got inspired for #8. (Ew, I’ve seen all of them, who am I?)
My scariest injury was bouldering in the Smokey Mountains last year. I was about 12 feet up and slipped, and while I fell quite accurately to the crash pad below, I landed horribly on my ankle and to this day can’t get my left heel to touch the ground in down dog. 🙁 Luckily, it was just a sprain!
I had to take a boy to the ER once when he lacerated his forearm like woah on a gear while, um, biking down a slide a la Jackass. My brother caught the whole thing on film. I was really excited to watch him get stitches…until the nurse picked me up off the floor where I had fainted and asked me to wait outside.
Am laughing so hard at you fainting!!! ALthough- gah – your poor friend!
Send Allison to a chiropractor. I have similar stuff and its due to my hips occasionally deciding to be uneven.
One of my worst? Rollerskating down a huge hill in a skirt in the fourth of july parade. The only way I could think of to stop and avoid wrecking into the next float was falling on my butt. Can you say road rash? I couldnt sit for a week, and it was humiliating to boot!
Oooh and in a parade, no less! Ouch!
These pictures! I am reading through my fingers laced over my eyes (sort of like when I read The Cell by Stephen King, come to think of it) . Egads!
I think the golden rule of working out should always be listen to your body and honor what it says!!! 🙂
Hahaha! And I love your golden rule of working out!
I broke and severely sprained my ankle last Halloween. I then started back at the gym in January (I was cleared by a doctor!). I proceeded to trip over an obstacle course and sprain my ankle in the exact same way. I now constantly have to nurse my poor little ankle, I worry it will never be the same, even with physiotherapy. I blame my parents. Both of them have skinny little ankles, that I inherited. It gets stiff, so it hurts to run and jump sometimes. Luckily, spin class is okay most of the time.
I have no suggestions for Allison…but I sort of want a video of her Lucky Charms jig. And I hope she feels better soon.
Worst injury I’ve ever seen? Erm…none to be honest. I guess some weird stuff happens at Stampede, but that’s the name of the game when you are riding bulls, and roping calves, and the like. A lot of bad stuff happens in hockey too. And luging. Really, any sport with ice and blades is a combination for trouble, in my opinion.
I had to look up what a Webkin is. I’m surprised the website didn’t give me a seizure with all those insane colours. My eyes still hurt.
You are hilarious! Totally agree about the Lucky Charms jig but I have to tell you, the Webkins thing is really fun with young children. Kinda sad my ‘little guy’ outgrew it!
Yeah, they are cute little things! It was all the virtual stuff my kids wanted me to buy with real money that I found not as adorable;)
I’m so sorry about your ankle! I have similar issues with my wrists – I just have really tiny wrists and I damaged them so much in gymnastics that to this day I have to be really careful with them or they’ll get stiff. I’ll see if I can catch Meg & Al doing their leprechaun jig on video;)
my sister was a gymnast, so I saw more than my fair share of injuries. Once, she was doing this bouncy move on the floor, where you land and then jump instantly back up into a leaping straddle split thing (these are the technical gymnastics terms, of course) and when she lnaded to spring back up, she landed on the OUTSIDE of her ankle, shattering it. My dad was videotaping it like usual and I watched that in slow motion more times than I should admit (not just me, everyone did, it was a train wreck) and cringed and nearly hurled every time.
I’ve only ever had minor injuries, tending toward the overuse variety. And clearly, I exercised through them. I think we were twins separated at birth. Except for that whole mormon thing. 🙂
Ok, I”m nearly hurling and I didn’t even see it! There was a girl who broke her neck on the vault in my gym but fortunately I didn’t see it. And hey, being your twin is the biggest compliment ever! (And don’t worry, you still have time to convert;))
I’ve been fairly lucky that my exercise injuries have mostly been a few sprains and such, nothing to warrant serious concern, just some ice, rest and ice cream. I just wanted to say that you have probably chosen the only picture in the world of Eric Lindros pushing someone else into the boards. That man has had more concussions than you can count with your shoes on. (I may be prone to a little hyperbole in that sentence but not by much.) He and his brother, Brett, are clear warnings why you have to protect your noggin!
So, um, I have no idea who Eric Lindros is or which picture in my post he is in. *hangs head in shame* I just googled “funny sports injury” … but glad to know that whoever he is, he’s a living cautionary tale!
Something I learned the hard way: if you sprain your ankle, don’t go to a kickboxing class. Then walk to the farmer’s market. Then walk up and down a hill at your dorm trying to get all the free food because of *theme night*. It’s kinda bad for recovery. Sadly, that was not a sports injury…I tried to walk on a foot that fell asleep. *talented* Also, if you feel pain while running, need to get back home and re-acquaint yourself with Ben-Gay, don’t go on a 3 mile walk because you bumped into a friend. It tends to make it worse. Where was this post when I needed it, hmmmm? 😀
“I tried to walk on a foot that fell asleep. *talented*” ROFL! Oh you sound like me!
Oh this is a post so close to my heart! Ankle reconstruction was 6 long weeks ago and I am still walking with a cane- and I am not even close to 40 yo (ok, so I can see it from here) I sprained my ankle doing step ups at the park and stepped down onto the side of my ankle. I wish it was more interesting than that.
That was 6 years ago and it took me that long to ignore my short term running goals to get it fixed so that there might be long term running goals.
(The medical team have approved cycling and swimming today!)
Being injured means other people like to come and chat about their injuries- strangers, weird smelly strangers even.
“Being injured means other people like to come and chat about their injuries- strangers, weird smelly strangers even.” <-- Isn't that the truth?!? It's the same weird way with pregnancy too... Glad you are doing better - yay for swimming and cycling!
Im still pretty damn proud I woke up one morning 11 months ago with a HARDCORE runners injury and wasnt running a step.
That said, I still decided to strengthen the muscles around it as you suggest.
you know, in case I do decide to run…or ever get chased 🙂
I dunno – you’ve run enough races now that I think you’ve earned your runner title;) And I’m so so so glad your back/butt is doing better now! Although I did enjoy all your posts about the many objects you tried rolling around on to get some relief!
Ha Ha Ha whine a lot! Sounds like me most of the time 😉
I think I know what your friend has ( the one with the pain that’s going down her leg ). This pain is caused by Sciatic Nerve, and most likely is because one of her disc is out of place and pinching the nerve.
I got injured over a year ago and had the same pain, I could’t sit or sleep and it just got worst over time. When I went to the doctor they told me I had a herniated disc in the lower part of my spine. Then he said I am going to need surgery otherwise it won’t heal. But to his surprise it finally did heal a year later though. This is what I did and it completely healed my disc:
Everyday walk in place raising your knees high for 5 minutes, this will ease the pain a bit. Then tell her to use Balance Ball, ( sitting on a balance ball and lightly bouncing on it ) also for 5 minutes every day. The third exercise is laying on your stomach and placing the hands by the chest raise your back 10 reps at a time throughout the day. She can also find some stretches for Sciatic Nerve on Youtube.
All these things really helped me, but the healing did take over a year. I hope your friend feels better.
Thank you for the advice! I just e-mailed it all to Al. I hope that she doesn’t have a herniated disc! But I’m glad to hear that you managed to heal yours without surgery.
Worst injury I’ve seen? I’m at the front desk at a gym; someone (just the other day, in fact), pinched his finger on the hack squat machine. Probably broken, flesh oozing out of the wound.
My favorite remedy above is strengthen supporting muscles. I’ve done the core thing to strengthen my lower back, the supporting muscles to handle my knees, and have worked a lot on my feet to mostly eliminate plantar fasciitis (it still flares now and then — mostly after softball games when I’ve been sprinting in cleats — but it’s contained).
Thanks for the post!
Ok – GROSSSSSS!!!! I’ve always thought that hack squat machine was evil.
Last year I was hobbling around on a compression boot after breaking my ankle (doing LAUNDRY, not sports) but that didn’t affect me as much as when I had a pulled lat muscle, which got me zero sympathy because it didn’t look like anything was wrong with me.
Agree with some of the others; sure sounds like sciatica to me. Butt bridges have almost eliminated the problem for my husband. (Then he forgets to do the exercises and it comes back.)
Good to know about the bridges!! And I broke my foot making cookies so I totally get the laundry thing:)
I’ve spent time discussing the injury problem with gym members over 50 who have some wisdom. They told me: 1. If you know what it is that is causing the injury, make super strict rules to avoid repeating it. 2. Cross-train to avoid wearing out the joints. Our muscles are almost always willing to do more than our joints should be doing. Older runners, in particular, tell me that they are sorry that they didn’t cross-train when they were younger because their knees cause them so many problems.
There is almost some kind of exercise that you can do when injured. If it’s a lower body injury, concentrate more on upper body, and vice versa.
You are fantastic at picking out the photos. Ouch x 10!
🙂 Marion
THis: “Our muscles are almost always willing to do more than our joints should be doing.” is excellent advice! I’d never thought of it that way but you are SO right.
Honestly, I think I overdid it yesterday at the gym. Trying to determine if it’s just a sore lower calf or a high ankle sprain. Since it’s been 4 months since I was last at the gym, finally having been cleared by docs to go again, I may have run a little too hard. We’ll see.
Ooh – good luck! I hope it’s nothing!
That’s the best answer by far! Thanks for contrbiuntig.
I’ve never had a true injury — just soreness, sprained ankles, etc.
I did want to say that I am roaring over these photos! The soccer player and the kayakers are too much.
Yeah I thought those were hilarious too! And then I felt bad for finding other people’s pain so funny. But I still giggled:)
Does childbirth count as a sports related injury? ‘Cause if it does, I think that wins for me. Sure using a mirror during childbirth is motivating, but … *shudder* … yuck! It took me six months to feel normal enough ‘down there’ to do any kind of bouncy aerobics. And I still have a 5 mile run max before I pee my pants.
I’d tell you about the worst injury I’ve ever seen, but first you have to take a Valium and lie down!
The sad thing is that my worst injuries aren’t from physical exertion. I tend to get hurt doing things like, um, walking across a room. When I was a kid the folks at the emergency room knew me by name. Every time we came in I felt like Norm from “Cheers.” A few years ago I freaked out a room full of clients when I raised my arm and was still bleeding from having nicked myself with a razor earlier (shaving under my arms). Yup. Nothing says “capable fitness instructor” like bleeding through your workout clothes!
Sports injuries are seriously a pain in the butt, and i speak from experience. I’ve had (have?) the same pain-pinchy feeling in my hip/back as your gym buddy, and actually had it for years thinking it was sciatica. Couldn’t sit on my right side for long, ached when I ran, etc. I finally went to a really good sports massage therapist, who disagnosed piriformis syndrome. Apparently, some people luckily (?!) are just built with their sciatic nerve very close to the pirimformis muscle, and when the piriformis is strained, it mimics sciatica. Anyway, after some VERY painful massage therapy, it almost completely resolved, and I can now sit on my right side and seldom get the sciatic pain down the leg. It acts up once in a while, but is fairlyl easily treated by the same painful massage.
Worst sports injury in my experience is always ankle sprains. I’ve had too many to count, and just thinking (or reading, yikes) about them makes me feel queasy.
One is an exercise injury and the other is just a kid being a kid.
Does anyone else remember Roller Racers? I decided that the best thing to do was use it down in our basement. I never saw the power cord going across the floor. The wheels of the Roller Racer stopped, and my body didn’t. Which meant I ricocheted my face off the cement and knocked my two front teeth out. That was awesome.
Last year, I rolled my ankle running and then refused to rest it sufficiently. The pain and swelling seemed like a great excuse to skip church, but I couldn’t bring myself to skip volleyball two days later. On top of the rolled ankle, I had also put a literal hole in my right palm – my serving hand. The bandage came off at one point and the ball came back to me with my own blood on it. That was gross and yet I still kept playing.
Oh, and then there was the time I was trying to catch a guy during a gym class basketball game. Instead of hitting the ball, though, I caught the heel of his shoe as he was running with my middle finger. I felt that baby snap all the way back, and it STILL didn’t break.
Though I have broken one toe three times. Twice by not looking where I was going, and onece playing a vicious game of Animal Ball.
Wow. I get injured a lot…
I never admit defeat fast enough when I’m injured! When I used to play netball (a basketball-like sport) at a high level, I once broke my middle finger, ring finger and baby finger *at the same time*. Not wanting to cause a fuss, I waited until the next break to get them strapped by our team coach, then kept playing for another 45 minutes, and finally went to the doctor’s the next morning. I’d like to say I’ve matured and learned from my mistakes, but when I snapped my hamstring earlier this year, I did more or less the exact same thing; tore it at 8pm, then went out dancing and only went to the doctors at 4am when I realised I couldn’t sit down at all!
Worst injury I’ve seen was probably a collarbone snapping, as that was poking out… Bleugh.
My worst injury came wrestling. At a party. Clearly professional stuff here.
I fell and felt uncomfortable. When I looked down and saw my knee was about 8 inches from where it is supposed to be, I started screaming and went into shock! 2 hours later, my knee was “relocated” and Carly was on crutches for a couple weeks! In the scale of injuries, definitely not the worst. As for gross factor, it’s right up there.
My worst injury came while sitting on the floor reading the newspaper. I coughed really hard and “broke” a rib (I actually tore the cartilage where it meets bone on the outside edge of the ribcage–it sounded like fabric ripping). It was unimaginably painful. Not only did I have to drive myself to emergency in a car with a manual shift (shifting with the arm on the injured side), but I’m a flute player, and when I told the doctor that I had to play a concert in 2 weeks, he actually laughed at me!
I also tore an Achilles tendon 4 years ago and it didn’t heal well, so it always hurts (and probably always will). I do a kettlebell/functional fitness workout 3 times a week and the trainer is now used to me asking him to modify exercises so I don’t re-injure the area.
Hi! It’s been ages since I chimed in on anything, but here goes…
I’ve had three knee surgeries.
The first was from playing basketball. I turned, my shoe stayed put facing the opposite direction. Shredded theback of the kneecap off.
The second was from Aikido. I botched an advanced throw. With a guy twice my size across my hips. On a gymnastics mat (which, for those not aware, is springs and foam and layers of crap all over the place. Not a martial arts floor!). Tore the meniscus in half – completely. Submitted myself for experimental surgery to pin it back together rather than lose it.
The third? Peek-a-boo. In the backyard. When my son was a toddler. I tried to stand and turn at the same time. Tore the SAME meniscus! But in a different way this time. Had to remove part of it.
I could go on and on – going over the handlebars of my bike into the ditch? Breaking my pinkie finger so many times it’s the only straight finger on my hand? Dislocating two toes? (Oh, wait- that was work, not athletics!) Dislocating a rib? Tore my elbow?
I think as many embarassing stories as Charlotte has, I have injury stories.
I talk to my trainer about random aches and pains all the time. I’m terrible at both describing pain, and figuring out where it comes from, so it’s always a funny conversation.
OHMYGOODNESS I was seriously mid bite of my apple when I read that femur story…and promptly kept eating, as it had no effect on me 🙂 haha riiiight…I’ve had lots of injury stories due to my years in soccer, but I think the worst was when I had just come out of my first maxiofacial surgery, and was finally released to play again…I was at soccer practice and we were scrimmaging each other , and a girl on the other team and I both went up to head the ball, well she ended up heading my HEAD instead (wow, lots of rhyming going on…) …she knocked my two front teeth back into my mouth …they were literally hanging on by threads in my throat…no one would tell me what happened and I couldn’t talk, so all I kept doing was (with a mouth full of blood) say, “wha happen?” in my gurgling talk…ugh. I ended up having to go into my dentists office and get the teeth pulled back into my mouth and set with a retainer…my poor dentist was on a lake retreat with his family and had to drive 2 hours back to Dallas to come help me! Needless to say, I’ve never been more appreciative of my smile now!!
I feel Allison’s pain, literally. I have been battling something similar for over a year. I have tried 2 different doctors, therapy and a chiropractor. They thought is was disk, hamstring, sciatica and therapist thinks piriformus syndrome. I rarely sit and long car rides are excruciating. I have just gotten back into working out. Running is sometimes fine and sometimes really tough. They say I have been hard to diagnose because I am so limber that the normal tests don’t work. They did xrays, mri and a nerve damage test (that was nasty – needed to do both legs to see results of good leg vs. bad). Anyway, stretching properly does help (google piriformus syndrome) but I would love to hear what she finds out if she sees a doctor because I am far from better – mostly just dealing with this ‘pain in the butt’.
Forgot to mention that the last doctor, a pain specialist, suggested botox injections to try to atrophy the piriformus but he said it was not covered by insurance, would cost $1500, would only last a couple months and he could not guarantee any improvement (because he could not guarantee that he would get the botox in the right place). I did not go for it and that was my last doctor’s appointment on the issue.
Charlotte, I have the gym buddy Allison thing too & mine started with my bad feet & I kept running even though those fat pads hurt like hell & that changed my gait which took my hip out of whack sooooooooooo maybe she did something to get the hip out of whack & needs to get rehab to not only stretch it out & get the flexibility back in it but to get some strengthening moves & rehab moves to keep it healthy going forward.
Me – no insurance so I am just trying to work it out myself. ;-(
The worst injury I’ve seen was a bike accident. My cousin was ridding down a stony hill and he fell right on the top on his butt and slid all the way down… He was wearing shorts. When we got to him he was bleeding badly from his “family jewels” and the doctor had to pull out gravel and small stones from
there. He walked like a penguin for over a month!
This came just at the right time!!! My sciatica started acting up yesterday, but as I suffer from an over-exercising issue (I hate saying “disorder”) I laced up my running shoes and took my 27 pound 2 1/2 year old for a five mile run in our 50 pound jogging stroller so I could “take it easy”… Needless to say, I didn’t sleep at all last night and can barely walk today!!!! Tell your friend to stretch and take it easy. Mine eventually goes away on it’s own, I’ve been dealing with it for about 10 years! And it used to only be my right side, since the birth of my daughter it likes to switch sides!!!!
The worst injury I ever saw was when my buddy was trying to turn a single into a double in our softball league. I don’t think I had ever seen him slide until this particular situation and when he slid it looked very awkward and I could hear the “Crack!” as his ankle got turned under his weight and broke. He couldn’t move anything until the ambulance arrived and got things under control. Good news is that a couple seasons later he was back on the softball field playing again…but not sliding.
My injuries usually revolve around my left hamstring. I pulled it once, and can usually tweak it without a lot of help. However I just stretch, rest and occasionally bitch.
I am on tylenol for arthritis because I did plyometics X (from the infomercial) and I’m walking around like the age I…oh never mind. So I wonder if I shuld stop and take more painkillers tomorrow to get thru another workoutFunny that you should write about this tonight.
Most of my injury stories aren’t great because of how injured I was, but of how I plowed through anyway. I have a REALLY high tolerance for pain and have since learned that I feel even a little bit of pain, something is probably really, really wrong. Cases in point:
When I was 14, I was in a car accident and got a compression fracture in my vertebrae (from going forward and then being snapped back by my seatbelt, which thank goodness I was wearing). They took us to the ER, pronounced us all fine, and sent us home. It wasn’t till a week later that my back started bothering me a bit and I decided to go to the doctor. I. Broke. My. Back. And didn’t know it.
When I was 16, I was on my way to ballet rehearsal and was wearing these stupid platform flip flops. I rolled my foot and it hurt, but I figured it would be fine so I threw my pointe shoes on and danced for an hour or so. We took a break and my foot was still hurting a little bit, so I used the time to throw an ice pack on there. When the break ended and I stood up, my foot buckled and wouldn’t support me. I pulled my dance tights back and saw that it was green and purple. Oops! A trip to the ER confirmed that I had fractured it. And yes, I had been dancing for an hour on it with no idea.
As for actual sports injuries, nothing big to report there except the marathon I was pacing where I tripped on a pothole in the first mile and fell flat on my face. I stopped at a medical tent to get help (but apparently they were only authorized to give me bandaids/gauze but NOTHING to clean out all the gravel in the wounds… wtf), then ran 7 min miles to catch back up to my group. I ended up finishing RIGHT on time (I think 7 seconds early), but covered in blood. I still have a scar on my knee from what should have been a minor incident but was made worse by 4 hours of not getting to clean out the gravel (I tried to use water but that only does so well).
Great post!
Just realized this AM that I’m celebrating (cursing!) 10 years since my Achilles and inside tendon of my right ankle started giving me trouble. Through a great doc and orthotics I’ve run 2 marathons and a bunch of halves. But no mileage is ever guaranteed.
I ran and/or walked every day for the past week and my first steps this AM were burning with pain. Brilliantly, I realized that today must be a day OFF from exercise and high heels. Ice will come later tonight. And hope that tomorrow things will be better signaling that Saturday’s hike is still on.
SO hard to take care of ourselves as we try to, um, take care of ourselves isn’t it?
The worst injury I’ve had was when I was still in gymnastics. Peeled off the back of the high bar, bounced off the low bar, ended up with a compound fracture in my forearm. Scariest injury, which thankfully ended up being minorm was when I thought I broke my neck attempting a front handspring-double front into the pit and smacked my forehead on the side. Worst injury I’ve ever seen was watching my teammate break both of her forearms.
Eventually I quit gymnastics, in part because I was fed up with the injuries, and promptly blew out my knee pole vaulting. Oops.
I skipped this post and and now karma is kicking me…over the weekend on my usual Sunday morning bike ride I took a curve too fast and crashed – a trip to the E.R. confirmed I had a separated shoulder. And yes, more than the pain I am ticked off about what a dent this will put in my summer workout schedule. To cheer myself up I decided I will try to prove the truth to weight loss being more about diet than exercise and will focus more on calories in instead of calories out. And long walks are still an option…though it is a tad hard to push the stroller one handed.
http://meloniejohnson.com/blog/2011/06/28/10-reasons-a-rip-in-my-shoulder-is-putting-a-rip-in-my-summer/
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