I love them. They have kept me sane for these past few weeks.

Two and half weeks ago I was pretty hopeful about my back. Since then, I have undergone an MRI, received word that I have a bulging disc at my S1 vertebrae, and today I underwent my first (and hopefully last!!!) steroid injection. I have ceased all running, with the exception of leading a group run this past Saturday in celebration of National Trail Running Day, which I ran under high dosages of pain medication, and as the sole representative of Lehigh Valley Running Scene (as if I had another representative.)

I attempted a short run a couple of days ago and after that horrible – and painful – run I have thrown my hands up to attempting any runs until this pain is taken care of. Six months ago it all began, for no rhyme or reason and no injury or fall I can possibly think of, and has progressed weekly to a point where I cannot stand to go a day without pain medication. Today’s injection was the most painful thing I have experienced other than childbirth, and probably my passing my kidney stone. It ranks right up there. I was at the point of puking and passing out while on the procedure table. Holy shit. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.

Hopefully, in a couple of days I will be feeling a ton better. At least well enough to start stretching and working on the inflammation of the disc. This injection was primarily for me to deal with this unbearable pain. Hopefully, it will work on some of the inflammation as well.

While the actual needles did not hurt, they literaly felt like the slightest of pin pricks, the injection of medication into my back was horrible! And the doctor had to try three times to find the correct location with his syringe, as well as administer three injections of numbing medicine since I was having such trouble. The burning, searing pain of the steroid medication going into my nerve and shooting down my leg was incredible and almost impossible to endure.

I was in tears for a good hour afterwards. I did not expect THAT kind of pain. It was so upsetting.

Hopefully, a shot in the back will be all that it takes. I can withstand that one more time if it means no back surgery. Surgery would be the end of my running career.

Fingers crossed, people.

I’ve been busy laying on ice pads for the past two days. It’s working, things are starting to feel better. I hopped on the treadmill last evening for a quick half mile run to test out the progress and gauge whether or not I’d be able to run this morning. Everything felt pretty good and I felt even better when I woke up this morning so I laced up my shoes and got in an easy 30 minute run on the treadmill this morning. The pain is still there but it is dull and at least now I know exactly what it is.

I can’t wait to see the chiropractor tomorrow morning.

Back when I began having hip flexor pain in May I had just come off a crazy biking month, I had 250 miles racked up for April. The reason for that was because I had some shin splints I was allowing to heal and chose to bike and stop running for a few weeks. It worked. The shins splints were gone. Then the hip flexor pain appeared. I searched online for a connection between hip flexor issues and biking and found none.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have been having trouble flipping over in bed at night. This has probably been going on since the end of June/early July and is a classic symptom of SI joint syndrome. Not knowing this at the time I disregarded it, actually I would forget all about it during the day and only remember in the middle of the night when I would go to switch positions. Still, I never figured it was anything to worry about.

Then the lower back pain. A trip to the chiropractor. I learned I had SI Joint Syndrome. It’s all connected. And I can pinpoint the beginning of this to those 250 miles of biking . Turns out that SI Joint injuries are very common in the biking world. Crazy, huh?

Phew! I was a little worried I was going to offend someone with parts of that post yesterday. Maybe I did and they refrained from commenting. I’m sorry about that if I did offend you.

Christina, let me add to the pet peeves you mentioned. I was trying to stay on track with running etiquette so I failed to mention cars in my post. But, speaking of cars and pet peeves, I have two big ones. The first concerns driving with cell phones attached to the ear. I’m extremely leery of drivers who are talking on a phone. I don’t even know how they can possibly concentrate on driving, much less share the roads with bikers, runners and walkers.

My second concern is with drivers who think they own the road and feel that runners do not belong there. By law we (runners) are allowed on the roads except where marked otherwise. Yet, some drivers feel we should not be there at all and will go as far as swerving to try to hit us. This has happened to me on more than one occasion, this has happened to people I know. There is this one guy I know whose name is Bob, and we call car run-ins “getting bobbed” since he has been hit or nearly hit many times. Runners have died because of run ins with cars. I’m not sure it will ever end and I am a huge advocate of pathed paths alongside roadways for people who walk, run, bike, etc. I have lived in Eugene, OR where they have over 50 miles of pathways. I’ve seen it elsewhere such as along Route 70 in Colorado, outside of Vail. Wouldn’t it be great if ALL cities and towns started building these?

Yesterday was a rest day for me and I am taking one today as well. I found a chiropractor and called first thing Monday morning, I had a 10 am appointment the same day. This guy was great and I would seriously recommend him to anyone in my area who is in need of some chiropractic care. His name is Stuart Cohen over on 19th Street. He’s a fitness guy and after a little adjustment and manipulation suggested that instead of heat I should be icing my back. He feels the issues are with my SI joint (sacroiliac) and the left hip flexor issue that I’ve been having for the past two months is also a result of this. He also said that he isn’t going to tell me not to run. I’m to use my own good judgement. Just be sure to ice afterward. I go back on Thursday morning.

Interestingly, I looked up SI joint and found a wealth of information. Yep, it’s classic SI Joint Syndrome. It can be easily mistaken with sciatica and one of the classic symptoms is trouble rolling over in bed at night. Well, it’s no surprise that when I told the chiropractor that I had been having trouble rolling over in bed at night for about 3 weeks prior to my visit to his office he kind of smiled and shook his head.

Classic symptoms are difficulty turning over in bed, struggling to put on shoes and socks and pain getting your legs in and out of the car. (copied from http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net)

The SI joint is where the tailbone and the hip bone connects. Click the image to enlarge.

I found some strengthening exercises for the SI joint which I will begin once the inflammation goes down and things start feeling better.

(click to enlarge)

My hip/back does feel a bit better than it did yesterday. More ibuprofen, more icing and more resting. I can’t wait to head back to the chiropractor on Thursday. Depending on how things feel I may try a short run tomorrow. Remember folks, listen to your body.