Before I begin, don’t forget that today is your last chance to enter my Bulu Box giveaway! There will be three winners, so spread the word.
In other news, it’s Tough Love Tuesday and I’ve been giving myself a lot of Tough Love for the past few days. Despite my best attempts to ignore it, I’ve finally had to face the fact that I injured myself running. I’ve had some knee issues before, but this time was the worst.
After a couple of days of trying to take it easy, I thought I’d go out for a run. Granted, I hadn’t been doing as much as I should have (minimal ice and ibuprofen, for instance), but I really thought I’d be okay. After about a mile I knew I was in trouble. The pain when I was running on flat ground was pretty bad, but running uphill was fine (as was going up the stairs upon returning home). Going down the stairs, however, was a different story. I put my knee in a brace, propped it up, and watched some TV in the hopes of feeling better in the evening.
Sunday night, however, I could feel a grinding sensation in my knee and finally decided to go to the doctor. Yesterday after my internship I forced myself into a walk-in clinic (remind me to get a PCP soon, okay?) and waited for triage.
After a long wait I finally spoke to a Nurse Practitioner who admitted she was less than an expert on running injuries, but based on my description suggest it might be tendinitis. That didn’t sound nearly as bad as things I had been considering, so I was somewhat relieved. She gave me orders to ice it regularly, stay away from running for the next week, and take ibuprofen every four hours or so.
I got home and promptly did what she said.
Three ibuprofen and some ice later, I was feeling okay. I realized as the evening went on, however, that my knee brace was pushing my knee in all the wrong directions to actually help my patellar tendon. Oops.
I have since ordered a patellar tendon strap, but won’t get it for a few days. What did I do instead? I obviously rolled my cheep knee brace into a makeshift patellar tendon strap.
Since doing so I have been able to walk up and down stairs without any sort of grinding, crunching, squeaking, or other terribly disturbing sensations. Yay! My intention is to stay away from running for the rest of this week and part of next week while getting in some cardio on the stationary bikes at the gym. Not ideal, but certainly better than irritating the injury further.
I am also continuing to pop ibuprofen every four hours and I increased my protein. While there seems to be mixed evidence on whether increased protein actually helps with a tendon injury, I figure it can’t hurt!
For breakfast I had overnight oats with Greek yogurt and peanut butter.
Then I had a protein bar for lunch and another as a snack. Anything I can do to help this knee get better in time for me to run the half marathon in less than two weeks is something I’m willing to try. Hopefully my patellar tendon strap that I ordered comes soon (it’s supposed to be here tomorrow). In the meantime, this makeshift strap is working pretty well.
I know, I didn’t take my own advice about taking things easy when you need to and I’m paying the price. For some reason it’s not as easy to take it easy as you would think. I’m learning very quickly just how important it is to give myself that rest time when I need it and acknowledge that it doesn’t make me a failure. The body needs rest time to perform at it’s peak and that’s what I want to give it.
Have you ever injured yourself while competing or training? What did you learn from the experience?
I thought ibuprofen was every 6 hours–can do things to your stomach. Do take care of your knees. I’m now “suffering” the ravages of injury to each knee in my younger years. Osteoarthritis is not fun.
You know, I wondered the same thing when I was meeting with the NP. She told me to take 2 ibuprofen every 4-6 hours with food, so that’s what I’ve been doing. I may take them further apart today to save my tummy. Thanks, Lee!