<p>deb922, I hear ya. When I pulled a calf muscle (“accelerating” from a walk to a jog – sudden sharp pain), it took laying off of it for a month to stop feeling twinges. I could go for walks, but that was it.</p>
<p>It’s so tempting to think you can just “run through it” or “it’ll get better once I’m warmed up”. That never seems to pay off. Better to just bite the bullet, give it a rest, and get healed up.</p>
<p>Deb- have you foam rolled it? I hope it heals up quickly!</p>
<p>I went over to our lovely neighborhood pool today. It’s a 50 meter pool (actually a foot or so short) and has that new salt water system instead of heavy chlorine. Of course, I couldn’t swim, but I did get in the water and it felt great. I did walk to 5 steps from my chair to the pool without the crutches. So- at least I got some sun and outside time. </p>
<p>I’m having a few side effects from the Forteo injections, but I think they will go away as I settle in to the medication. Late afternoon yesterday I had some dizziness and after I took the shot I had some real vertigo when I changed positions. The room flipped over! I didn’t feel well enough to eat dinner so just had some Grape Nuts and milk. Not a bad thing to miss dinner since while I was at work and freaking out over Vanderbilt’s horrific performance in the CWS game against Texas, I ate part (well- most) of a Moon Pie that was one of multiple boxes of the disgusting things left in our coffee/copy room. And I was feeling so virtuous for passing up the free snow cones they had for us in the afternoon! I mainly pased that up because I didn’t want to deal with carrying it with the crutches and I wasn’t feeling great from the Forteo medicine. </p>
<p>CountingDown:</p>
<p>Hah. You should be giving me diet advice! Anyone who has lost 100 pounds is obviously doing something right!</p>
<p>I plateu’d for a bit after 50 to 60 pounds (thought that was it), then, lost another 40 pounds. The two changes I made in the plateau time frame were whacking the carbs/sugars out of my diet. I stopped having sandwiches, stopped having a pasta dinner every week, etc. Cut sugar completely. Around that time, I also got a lot more serious about strength training. That’s when I did New Rules of Lifting for Abs. I think those steps made a difference, but it could have just been a plateau, with time/patience being the only thing I needed?</p>
<p>MOWC:</p>
<p>Love your new avatar. You are looking pretty spiffy on those crutches.</p>
<p>Good to hear that you got a little sunshine and pool time. Missing on the fresh air from running every day has probably got you feeling the onset of cabin fever.</p>
<p>Thanks! Yes, there are some weekdays that I don’t leave the building since it’s such a hassle. Two weekends Ina row Ive gotten some good sun and outside time. </p>
<p>You are gonna be off those crutches in no time. You’ve gotta be halfway there, right? </p>
<p>What a pain. I’d be miserable.</p>
<p>This Thursday is the 4 weeks, but I suspect they will order another MRI and I’ll have to wean off of them. I can tell it isn’t ready for me to just toss them and walk around. I’m doing some walking in the bathroom, closet, kitchen etc, but nothing more than 10 steps max.</p>
<p>Deb922 - you might want to consider a PT or Chiropractor who knows Graston or ART. That helped me. Ditto on foam rolling that MOWC recommended too. </p>
<p>If you have to stay off of it, try cycling or pool running to maintain your fitness gains ?</p>
<p>IDad (and others)- Once I’m cleared to do something and off the crutches, I want some suggestions for minimal things I can do to keep my arms as toned as they are now from the crutches. For now, i can’t do planks or any core work because that tweaks the sacrum, but after I’m healed… </p>
<p>Thanks for the foam roller advice. Off to order one. I’ve tried ibuprofen, ice, new shoes, stretching. I’ll try this too lol! Been putting off going to the doctor, I have family members who are PT’s and AT’s. I’ll ask them and see what they think. </p>
<p>Until your foam roller arrives you can use a nalgene water bottle or even a harder ball like a lacrosse ball.</p>
<p>To the basement for me. I had to really work at it to complete a full shift and punch the clock. This is just a hard workout. The strength sets are:</p>
<p>Rear Foot elevated split squat (foot in Jungle Gym) - 2 x 30 lb DBs
Chin ups
KB swing - 50 lb KB
Alternating bench press - 2 x 45 lb DBs</p>
<p>I got it done. Now, I’m off to make my world-famous grilled chicken caesar salad. I grilled some boneless breasts last night with my 16 ounce rib eye!</p>
<hr>
<p>MOWC:</p>
<p>Oh, yeah… I’ll come up with some arm exercises you’ll just love! :)</p>
<p>I successfully used a large silicone rolling pin when my cat shredded my foam roller. :)</p>
<p>Deb, my H had a terrible calf muscle pull when he sprinted back in April, so he was taking IB and rolling it and alternating icing it to no avail. He went to a naturalopath for an unrelated issue (colitis) and was surprised by her conclusion (and resolution): she had never met him before, so did a full appointment to get to know him and what all his health concerns are. Because he had been donating plasma to the Red Cross regularly, part of that process puts a solution back into his body that causes magnesium and/or calcium to be depleted. At the Red Cross, they know this, so they have you eat a Tums while there in an effort to prevent this deficiency. My H didn’t know why he had to eat the Tums, but he did because he figured it couldn’t hurt. Since my H exercises regularly and sometimes intensely, he may have not waited long enough in between plasma donations to rebuild his supply of magnesium and calcium, even eying the Tums. Once he pulled his calf, he cranked up the IB, and that aggravated his colon, but nothing was helping the root cause. The naturalopath advised him to take calcium/magnesium supplements, and within 2 weeks he could tell he was healing enough to start running slowly again. Now he is racing on the trails with all of us and his times are rapidly improving.</p>
<p>Anyway, long story, but my point is that some of these things that happen to us may not be so obvious on the outset, so look for the real root cause and you could heal sooner.</p>
<p>P.s. For those of you that know about colitis, when he stopped the ibuprofen, the colitis flare up flared right down, too.</p>
<p>deb, I would recommend going to someone who does ART or Graston right away. I’ve had 2 bad calf injuries, the first one I spent 2 months trying to deal with myself, but the problem I had was knowing when it was ok to run again, because the calf would seem fine, I would try to run, and end up re-injuring it. I was feeling pretty desperate about it and finally went to a chiro and had both ART & Graston. He also gave me a plan for slowly starting running again, which I followed religiously, plus calf & other strength exercises that I unfortunately got lazy with and stopped doing. </p>
<p>About a year later, I injured the other calf just as badly, but the recovery time was much, much shorter because I got it treated right away. This time I became serious about the strengthening exercises too. I feel like I’ve finally beaten the calf issue (knock on wood), but I constantly use the foam roller, and keep up with my strength exercises, especially the calf ones.</p>
<p>5.5 mile trail run today. 3 big hills that had to be walked. I think my next goal is to be able to run the whole thing.</p>
<p>Amen Blankmind to the foam roller and strength. Some of my runner friends think I spend to much of my time to the pre running routine. I’ll spend an hour on core strength stretch and probably less than an hour on running or other cardio. Don’t like to do it but I think it is necessary to keep an older runner injury free.</p>
<p>My red foam roller went on vacation with me … Love that thing. I ran 6 miles today after getting back from vacation last night. I gained one pound, but am fine with that as I ate lobster, ice cream and wine in vacation quantities.</p>
<p>“Still, they are probably more likely to provide good nutrition advice that the two groups I would NEVER listen to on nutrition: body builders and registered dieticians… :)”</p>
<p>IDAD- Why not registered dietitians? </p>
<p>Registered dieticians are the apostles of the official public health policy dogma on nutrition – low fat, eat 1200 calories a day of carbs, substitute margarine and vegetable oils for butter, etc. etc. </p>
<p>I think it’s horrible advice, hence I would avoid dieticians like plague. That is exactly the bad advice that’s contributed to the current nutritional disaster.</p>