MRI results

Thanks to the best chiropractor (A.R.T. specialist, sports injury guru) ever, I got the world's fastest turnaround on a MRI.  Dr. Scott wrote the MRI prescription, faxed it to imaging place he recommends, called my insurance and convinced them I needed it, and helped me get a same-day MRI....all in the span of an hour!  So, if you are in Orange County and need to see someone, I beyond highly recommend him.  The next day, he called them because he expected a report by that morning and it was not ready; he worked some magic and had my results by that afternoon...whew, I did not have to spend the weekend wondering what the MRI showed.

I'm glad I stayed optimistic because the MRI turned out in the best possible way- it was positive but for something that is relatively minor.  I have a lot of swelling in a specific location and a possibly inflamed bursa; the location of the swelling indicates that it is caused by something that has plagued me for years, a huge knot in my calf muscle.  The knot was there during last year's Boston marathon and reduced me to walking (okay, dragging that leg behind me as I could not even walk) and it has been so bad that a previous chiro feared I was developing compartment syndrome.  Apparently I must have torn (microtears) my calf muscle or damaged it at some point causing collagen to form and fill in the gaps; the mast of collagen is the worst my chiro has ever witnessed and he said it's very rare for someone my age to have.  sigh. 

Hopefully frequent ART sessions between now and the start of the school year will go a long way in breaking up that scar tissue.  After school starts, I will be on my own using the stick, a lacrosse ball, and anything else I can do to break it up (ie. hopefully killer massages from my BF).  Outlook is that it will take about 6 months of "beating" it to death to break up the collagen mast.  I have to be very careful running downhill since this makes me more likely to injury my knee.  He told me I can't be the typical ultra runner who blasts down the downhill sections. 

I'm okay with giving up speed work, flying on the downhills as long as I can do what I love- run.  I have to work on my running gait since I swing my left leg out in a weird way and it's related to my calf injury/knot; I basically have to retrain myself to move in just one plane of motion when running.  It may mean running with short, slow steps but I'll deal with that.  I've been working on engaging my left big toe more when pushing off and I've been doing that on a treadmill (not turned on) wearing Vibrams; I intend on doing some short runs in Vibrams in hopes that it helps me focus on my toe-off, gait.  On tap for tomorrow, more PT exercises and a run!!!  I'm learning to cherish my runs even more since I had the fear of not running for 6+months hanging over my head last week.