Millie 20 and St. Patrick's Day

WOW!! How in the world are you 20 months already?  Seriously, you are such a bundle of joy and you keep me on my toes.  You love to talk, write, color, you're getting into everything.  We're potty training, you do really well, you go  most of the time when we take {every diaper change}.  You sometimes ask to go potty in between, now to just break you all together.  I plan on taking a few days off with you in June and just trying to crush it in a weekend.  maybe before, we'll see.  You still don't like to sleep by yourself and Mommy honestly is getting sick and tired of sharing the bed with you and the dog.  Seriously you both need to sleep in your own spaces.  You love MDO still and you're still going two days a week.  You love to eat, you're so not picky.  You know what you want and you'll go find it and bring it to us if we can't understand you.  The doctor said you're already on a two year old level and that we need to work with you on your potty training, so I'm doing my best.  

You are such a blessing and I can't imagine my life without you.  

The start of Physical Therapy and Dry Needling

I started my first physical therapy session Monday and let me tell you I had no clue what to expect and was presently surprised by what all I've learned and been told thus far.  I've been  twice now and will continue 2 x a week for a few weeks.  I have no health insurance so, it's unfortunately going all on the credit card at this point b/c I have no way to avoid it and it's definitely nothing I can't do at this point.  

Let's back up and get the back story.  

At the end of January I was running and tripped over the sidewalk, busted a whole in my pants, bleeding everywhere and got back up and kept running.  Then a few weeks later, I tripped and fell one of our Wednesday night group training runs.  I felt like an idiot and got back up and kept going.   Take it a few weeks further into February we had our first ice/snow Saturday morning and they canceled the group run and I decided to go out and run the 4 miles myself and slipped on the ice and fell yet again.    Not my greatest tribute to running thus far but I got back up, pushed myself and finished those 4 miles.  I kept with the training program and kept running 3 nights weekly and our Saturday long runs.  I guess it all added up and take it to last Saturday, I woke up at the normal time, had my pre-training breakfast {1 piece wheat toast and 1 tbsp peanut butter} and headed out the door to meet everyone at our location.  I woke up that morning with my leg hurting, but brushed it off. I got to the group run and we did our stretches and hit the pavement. About half a mile in I had a sharp pain and said something in the group, they all said to keep an eye on it.  About half a mile later i was in tears, I couldn't hardly move, I had to stop or I was going to fall flat on the pavement.  I went back to the car and got ready to leave, I sent an email to the  PT who works with Fleet Feet and got an appointment this past Monday to go meet her for an evaluation.  She recommended me laying off running for a bit, any exercise at this point she said and to come in Wednesday night to do PT.   

Last night {Wednesday} I went for my first true PT appointment we started with dry needling: 

via Wikipedia 

In the treatment of trigger points for persons with myofascial pain syndrome, dry needling is an invasive procedure in which a filiform needle is inserted into the skin and muscle directly at a myofascial trigger point. A myofascial trigger point consists of multiple contraction knots, which are related to the production and maintenance of the pain cycle. Deep dry needling for treating trigger points was first introduced by Czech physician Karel Lewit in 1979.^[11] Lewit had noticed that the success of injections into trigger points in relieving pain was apparently unconnected to the analgesic used.^[8]

Proper dry needling of a myofascial trigger point will elicit a local twitch response (LTR), which is an involuntary spinal cord reflex in which the muscle fibers in the taut band of muscle contract. The LTR indicates the proper placement of the needle in a trigger point. Dry needling that elicits LTRs improves treatment outcomes,^[12] and may work by activating endogenous opioids.^[11] Inserting the needle can itself cause considerable pain,^[11] although when done by well-trained practitioners that is not a common occurrence.^{[citation needed]} No study to date has reported the reliability of trigger point diagnosis and physical diagnosis cannot be recommended as a reliable test for the diagnosis of trigger points.^[13][14]

I wasn't sure as to what exactly to expect and it was sharp at times, not really hurt but just felt different, unusual.  I could feel her getting to the reenactment of the pain that I've been experiencing during my runs and wow, it was a sharp pain at those points.  She would ask me is this your pain and I would tell her yes or no.  I put heat on it like she suggested last night and she gave me some exercises to do at home.   She also said that Saturday I can try walking for 30 minutes, no running, but it's a start.  I go back next Monday and hope that this works its magic and fast.  

If you're in Memphis and need to see a PT I highly recommend you go see Mary at Results Physiotherapy  .  

No Germantown half probably for me, but I am still planning on doing the Nashville half in April.  

Set Backs & Thoughts - Running Style

I still don't consider myself a "runner", that seems crazy to me.  After I cross that first half finish line, then I'll feel like I've earned that title.  I started running using Couch to 5k, last March.  While I've come a long way I'm not where I want to be.  Running is my "get my mind right" time.  It where I can just be free, it's me and pavement and it's where I can jam out to music, I can think out my to-do list, plan Millie's outfit and activities (yes I really think about that on my run).  It's just time to hear myself think, reflect, talk to God, tell him my fears, desires, needs, wants all of it.  But when you're in pain while running it's hard not to focus on that every step and that's where I am right now.  Yesterday I woke up having so sharp pain in my right leg, hip flexor all the way down to my knee.  I tried to take it easy, I didn't do my T25 workout and just was resting up for today's 11 miles.  Let's take it back where the problems started.  I fell a few weeks back on a training run, I twisted my ankle and while I thought it healed, it seems to have led to other problems. The PT I've been talking to through Fleet Feet has been awesome, she advise that it was probably there but that I didn't feel it for the pain in my ankle was worse.  The pain in my ankle went away and my hip flexor down to my knee started being progressively worse and to the pint where sitting hurt, standing hurt, walking hurt, running hurt.  I ignored it for as long as I could, it took a tole on my pace, going from my happy 9:30-9:45 to 10:30-11:00 pace. I wasn't happy about this.  I started reaching out to our training coach, Marcia and she advised I probably needed to slow it down and talk to the PT, Mary some more.  I met with her two weeks ago at a Fleet Feet training night where she came to check on us with injuries and problems. She had me do different things and pushed on my leg.  To say some of the things she did we're painful would be an inderstametemrn. It hurt like hell, just being honest.  I tried to tough it out, it'll get better, just keep going Meredith, no pain no gain. WRONG!!  I've made it 10 times worse.  Now I'm for sure going to PT, there's no way not too at this point and I may or may not be able to complete the Germantown half in TEO WEEKS!! To say I'm sad would just not do it justice. I'm pissed, I'm angry, I'm disgusted not with anyone else but myself.  I've put the time in and my body is not wanting to keep up with me. It's a hard fact to accept.  Will I get to do Germantown, honestly I'm hopefully but not sure. Nashville I think b/c it's still four weeks out I'll be okay, but I wanted Germantown!! I've ran most of the course (11 miles of it) so I know what to expect.  The question now remains can my body handle it.  We'll see, I'm praying it's not too late for the PT to work it's magic for this race.  

Just praying and knowing that I've given this 110% and I've done what I can the rest is up to my body to heal.  

Happy weekend!!

Last weeks long run.