Getting my Pilates on

I have not been blogging on here.  Life has been a little busy still.  I am still doing my writing for my book. I am also still recovering from last running injury. I have not even gotten on the treadmill this year so far.

My goals for March is to finally slowly get a run/walk back into running. I know that I want to get back into it. I just have not had the inspiration yet to do so.

In the meantime, I am in the process of starting a Pilates teaching training program in a week. I started taking up Pilates at the beginning of the year and have been officially HOOKED!  It has been the best thing to come into my life and thankful for it.

Now if I can get a flatter stomach, I will be very happy.

Until next time.

Physical Therapy, GRE, Psychopathology...OH MY!

I am sorry that I have not posted anything in a while since my 2nd knee surgery. Things have been semi-crazy here since the surgery. Here's a short synopsis of my life since the surgery:

• Physical Therapy - I am still going to Physical Therapy twice a week. It's a very, very slow process getting healed up from the surgery. I have had to learn a lot of patience and control my frustration during the process. I still have fluid in my knee as I come up to the end of my 2nd month since the surgery. I can confidently ride an recumbent bike without much pain, but looking forward to riding the real thing very soon. (And looking forward to the weather to warm up too.) It really restricts my ROM (Range of Motion) and interferes with some activities that I take for granted (and won't take for grant ever again.)
• Grad School Applications/GRE - I am in the process of studying for the GRE, which I have set for June 18, 2011. I have have cramming as much as vocabulary words as my brain can handle. I also have been continuing to look at the programs that I am interested in and slowly moving forward so I can start working on essays, transcripts, etc.
• I have taken up more and more knitting in order to deal with the lack of running and cycling in my life. I have finished a couple of projects so far and working on two more in the works.
• Current School - I am still on a straight "A' streak. I hope for it to continue in this challenging class that I am in right now.....so far so good. It really will help come the application time. I am enjoying myself and looking forward to the challenges that I wait for me for the rest of the program. I can't wait to add, "M.A." to the end of my name, but not as much as "Ph.D".

That's all I have for now. Until next time...

Still no running.....

...and I still have the knee pain. I also have less than 2 weeks until the Chicago Marathon.

I have put down two weeks of PT so far. I am also on strong pain meds too, but still have the pain. My left knee clicks, locks up and tightens up when I sit down for long periods of time. I can't go out and have out to have a great time without waking up the next morning in extreme pain. I even wear a knee brace as well to keep my patella stabilized.

I am getting very scared. This is my third attempt to do a FULL marathon and second attempt for the Chicago Marathon. I am so frustrated!

All I know is that I will have get a MRI soon. I just would like some closure with this. I don't like waiting...period. I am a patient person 'cept for when it comes to stuff like this.

Getting to "heart" of the matter

Well, it's been a while since I have posted. A lot has gone on, but have waited to discuss some of these things until I got more information. Here it goes...

• I rejoined Weight Watchers to remove the extra 12 lbs I gained from lack of running. So far I have lost half of that weight and hope to reach my goal by the end of January 2009.
• No running...yet. (see below)
• I have been dealing with serious and irritating health issues involving my heart, which caused to hold off my running until I feel more confident that things are under control. I have been dealing with heart palpitation, which is not unfamiliar territory for me. I have dealt with it previously when I diagnosed almost 4 years ago. I have had to make a few trips to the ER in the middle of the night. I am being treated with medication for this, but not working too well. My cardiologist is really pushing for an ablation, but I will only consider it as a last resort. I am currently wearing an event monitor for 30 days right now and had an echocardiogram today. My doctor believes that I have Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia (PSVT), but will hopefully confirm it once the heart monitor results ad echo come back. So not running for me - just lots of walking - for now. I even go to the gym as long as I get out of work on time.
• We have been slammed with snow this past week. It has been a challenge to relearn my winter driving skills. I wish Spring would come soon.

NO MARATHON for me

As you can tell by my title of my blog entry, I received very bad news from my doctor regarding my MRI I had on Wednesday morning. It is so bad that I do not any hope of running the Chicago Marathon in less than a month. I will have to wait to another marathon.

As for the injury, here's the initial findings from the radiologist:

"Bone marrow edema is idenitified with the medial aspect of the talus consistent with a bone bruise. There is mild edema of the calcaneus at the area of the sustentaculum tali. There is very small amount of fluid at the navicular insertion of the tibialis posterior tendon. This could be indicative of an an avulsion injury. No ligamentous interruption is appreciated. There is small amount of fluid within the ankle joint space.

Impression:

Bone Bruises of the navicular bone and calcaneus. Possible avulsion injury to the navicular attachment of the posterior tibialus tendon."

I must have had a worst fall than I thought. Right now, I fighting through the numbness and feeling devistated slowly. I am sure as soon as reality hits that I will continue to grieve. I am trying to take it all in right now, but it's pretty hard.

I am back to couch duty and need to stay off my feet as much as I can. It will not so hard because I will have good football to watch the next two days. Plus this is the first weekend where Josh and I are not running around getting our house ready. No running for me...period for awhile.

No running today...

....because I am listening to my body and resting one more day. I have a 5K next Saturday and I want to be able to participate in it. Instead of running, I am spending the day with Josh, who ran 13.1 miles today, relaxing by heading to the Loop for the afternoon which includes both of us getting massages - something that my legs are asking for. The shin pain has responded to doses of Advil and ice, which is a very good sign. I am going to add rest even though I will be breaking the training plan for the 10K I will be doing in late-October.

I wish I was running today, but I have to do what's best for my legs. I don't want anymore injuries especially because I just started running again.

The good news in all of this is that I dropped another pound this week with 13 lbs to go.