The long road back: Standing at the trail head

Hi all,

Haven't been over here in ages, life has just gotten too busy to keep up. I haven't run since early August because the doc still hasn't cleared me to run following the stress fractures in my cuboid and navicular. I'm slow to heal because of medical issues and the medication that goes with it, oh well, nothing I can do but heal. If all goes well, I should be back to running in January (granted I said the same thing about October and November
tongue.png
.

In the mean time I have started a beginners running group and had everyone running in socks, hehehe. They were all excited to hear about barefoot running and had a ball shuffling around the track.

I have been doing some hiking in my VFF Treks and love them (until the doc told me no more hiking!!) Bottom line, I haven't given up on barefoot or running, just biding my time while the tootsies heal.

For the newbies out there, I didn't get the stress fractures from being barefoot, I got them from being stupid. I was running flat ground for 3 years and them moved to a hilly area and proceeded to maintain my speed and mileage with the addition of steep hills to every run. MAJOR DUH MOMENT!

I hope everyone had a great TG and is not letting the impending winter kill their mileage!
 
Welcome back! I've been

Welcome back! I've been wondering where you disappeared to. Did you know there's actually a chapter on your base now?
 
Welcome back, Wendy.  Missed

Welcome back, Wendy. Missed you! Be sure to join the Korea - Osan AB Chapter and get together with Christopher for some runs when you are able.
 
Someone posted an article

Someone posted an article somewhere saying that stress fractures are a natural adaptation for a barefoot runner who formerly wore shoes - the foot has to realign. I have never had a stress fracture, but if I ever do, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
I'm with ya on the injury

I'm with ya on the injury front...just easing out of some mucho TOFP myself, finally going over 2 miles again. Ahh patience...

I too moved from Michigan to Colorado. Lowlands --> Mountains. Thank goodness for the thin air, it really slowed me down! :lol:
 
 I saw the Osan chapter

I saw the Osan chapter right away and fired off my request to join. It will be so cool to have another barefooter to run the flight line with!



I would hate to think this was a natural part of barefoot running! I think if you take it slowly enough and use your head it doesn't have to be. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have had stress fractures even if I had been running in shoes. I was being stupid.

so what is the current trick with emoticons? Apparently I did something wrong, LOL. One of these dark stormy days I will make that smilie page...

Not it is time to go to spin class and hit the weight I MISS RUNNINGGGGGGGGG!!!!
 
Emoticons: type the code you

Emoticons: type the code you get if you mouse over them.
 
I guess that it takes longer

I guess that it takes longer to heal stress fractures in the cuboid and navicular areas than other areas, right Wendy? From what I read about that bone, it's pretty intricate.
 
  Well,  I got a call from my

Well, I got a call from my doc's nurse yesterday. Seems the healing process may be slow because of low bone density. I asked for a bone density test shortly after the MRI confirmed a fracture, thinking all the steroids I have taken for RA might be an issue. The doc didn't want to do it, but humored me. I got the results back yesterday and am now on Fosomax to increase my bone density. Glad I pushed! Hopefully now this bone will heal. I guess I can thank the stress fracture for alerting me to having Osteopenia before it turned into osteoporosis. Treating it now should be very effective.
 
I'm glad you pushed for the

I'm glad you pushed for the densitometry, Wendy. Are you sure your taking steroids is what caused your osetopenia?

I used to have osteoporosis, but since I had the tumor removed from my parathyroid about 8-1/2 years ago, I now am in the osteopenia range. I won't ever be in the normal range due to my age.
 
I had been feeling extreme

I had been feeling extreme fatigue for a very long time. When I was about 28 years old, my general practitioner took some blood work, saw that my calcium levels were extremely high, so he sent me to an infectious disease specialist. She took more blood which showed my parathyroid hormone (PTH) was also off. Apparently, when your PTH is messed up, that tells them that there is at least one tumor on at least one parathyroid. (The average person has four parathyroids. They are very small organs that surround the back on the thyroid. They are not the thyroid. Para means near.) I was then sent to the first of six endocrinologists, trying to find a decent one. He told me I could either have surgery right away to remove the tumor/s or wait and monitor it every six months with blood work and urinalysis to check my calcium levels. I was at levels of 11.5 and anything over 12 could cause death or cause crippling in your hands and feet, but apparently, the levels don't shift largely that quickly, or they would have sent me to surgery immediately. What is odd about high calcium levels when the PTH is off is that although you have the necessary calcium in your body, your bones are not absorbing it. In the meantime, each passing day, my bone density was shrinking. When I became pregnant with my first son, there was no monitoring the condition any longer, I had to have surgery to remove the tumor, and I had to have it done in the second trimester, since there is a high rate of miscarriage in the first trimester due to the general anesthetic, and by the third trimester, the baby's bones start to really develop. My PTH was passing through the placenta telling my son's PTH to not develop bone. If I did not have the surgery, my baby may have been born still or deformed. They would have had me drink a radiation liquid prior to the surgery to exactly pinpoint the tumor/s, but because I was pregnant, that was not a possibility. He found only one tumor on one parathyroid, and he removed the whole parathyroid. They will remove all of your parathyroids if they all have tumors, but they will try to save enough good tissue and reimplant that in your arm; that, along with your taking calcium supplements is supposed to be enough to carry you through life. The surgeon who had performed my surgery told me he had performed 880 parathyroidectomies but never on a pregnant woman. That is how rare it is to have Hyperparathyroidism when you're young. Normally, they treat people (women mostly) in their 60s for this condition. There were only two recorded cases at that time of women having parathyroidectomies and being pregnant. There was one good outcome and one not good outcome. It was a frightening time for us. We thank God that our beautiful baby boy was born completely normal.

Having a calcium problem also caused other issues for me, so it's not just about building bones. Other things can go seriously wrong as well.

Demand "complete" bloodwork, Wendy. You just never know.
 
Let me know what your blood

Let me know what your blood results say. Make sure they understand to do a full and complete workup.