Embarrassing Race Photo

[jldeleon]

Ya, those are good ones, but I'm afraid I might be have to stick with my (lately) usual for awhile. I'm off the demerol, but I still take the gabapentin (nerve) meds. I just want to crash all the time. They make me so dizzy and tired and sleepy, but without them the pain increases. I still have peripheral neuropathy, since there's only so much the doctor could do. I am a mess. I believe I still have one of the four neuromas troubling me, but he says no way, it's in my head, literally, and that it's going to take some time to reprogram my brain after these last surgeries to tell me that it's not there. I still have crazy phantom pains, mostly at night. Enough of the pity party. Please enjoy a piece of cake.

Oh, and NEVER to the last one!

I belonged to the US Pain Foundation, and I have read books about people who were told numerous times that the pain was, "All in their heads" -and it was not. Take a look at their website, you may find some useful information there. It's important to work with doctors that err on the side of "it's NOT in your head" -rather than the other way around. Nerve pain is tricky, and can trick your senses, but it's no reason not to explore all options of other pain causing factors.

http://uspainfoundation.org/

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Thanks, Jen. You always stick up for me. Love you girl! He doesn't mean "it's all in my head" the negative way though, as in "you need a head shrink." What he means it that it is literally all in my head. When he cut the nerves, separated the branches, and relocated them into another part of my foot/feet (so they wouldn't be compressed anymore creating more stump neuromas), that messed up the way my brain saw the mapping of my nerves. Now my map has changed, and it's going to take some time to reset my brain to the new pattern. I have phantom pains, which are actually very real.

Here's what's happening according to Dr. Dellon's writings below:

Where does the Phantom Live? The location of the pain signal after amputation must be located within the amputation site, within the endings of the amputated nerves. Those nerves are within the scar, next to bone, and next to the arteries in the amputation stump. And that is where the Phantom lives.

Help for Phantom Pain is just not that complicated to understand:

1. An amputation cuts the nerve to the part that has been amputated.

2. The nerve end that has been cut, tries to grow back to that part.

3. Since the part is missing, the nerve attaches to something.

4. If that nerve attaches to the skin or the bone or a joint, then when the skin, the bone, or the joint move, the nerve is pulled, a message from the missing part is sent to the brain and the phantom appears.

5. If the nerve attaches next to an artery, and the large nerves are usually next to important arteries, then every time the heart beats, the nerve is stimulated, and this can make the phantom appear.

6. If the nerve is located next to where the artificial limb (prosthesis) fits, then, this too will make the phantom appear.

The Phantom was first described by the Neurologist, Silas Weir Mitchell, md (read more about him related to rsd in Chapter 7). In his writings after the American Civil War, in his book Injuries of Nerves and Their Consequences (published in 1872), Mitchell wrote his observations on injured soldiers after they had an amputation: “Sensory hallucination. No history of the physiology of stumps would be complete without some account of the sensorial delusions to which persons are subject in connection with their lost limbs…Nearly every man who loses a limb carries about with him a constant or inconstant phantom of the missing member, a sensory ghost of that much of himself, and sometimes a most inconvenient presence, faintly felt at time, but ready to be called up to his perception by a blow, a touch, or a change of wind.”

For anyone interested in phantom pain, check out Dr. Dellon's chapter on Phantom Pain here http://www.dellon.com/ps/chapter.08.pdf.

 

[jldeleon]

TJ,

Gotchya

This is freakish, but phantom pain for missing limbs has been corrected by looking in a mirror (where your mind sees the existing limb as the opposite limb) and corrected all sorts of "phantom feelings" that way -itching, stretching, not sure about pain. Isn't that freakish?

 

[RunningPirate]

Now my map has changed, and it's going to take some time to reset my brain to the new pattern.

Have you tried CTRL+ALT+DELETE?

 

[Tristan]

Rick, yeah its hard to judge anything unless the pic clearly shows your heel actually touching and your forefoot angled up from the ground still (probably would have to be more of a side shot to see that well enough). Even though it looks that way at that instant realize your foot is still off the ground and your forefoot is probably traveling down faster and can still touch down first. Then again I know the half I did over the summer and the recent 5k I just did that my form was struggling at the end. When I give it my all I tend to max out my calves before the end and loose the strength to maintain the forefoot form, though I back down my efforts so I can still hold on to a midfoot form. But thats just me, and I have always had weak calves for a runner I think.

Stills always seem to capture us in the odd positions. The couple times I've had my wife shoot my camera at a race I had set it to rapid fire. My new one can take like 6 frames a second and I tell her to just hold the button down for a few seconds. That gives me plenty to pick out the one that actually looked like I had good form. But the race photographers pics, well anything goes. At least you remembered to smile at the end! I wanted to buy one of the photos of my first barefoot race back in May, and also share it with a friend I ran it with - we've done several races together and crossed the finish line together - but she seriously looked like she died and came back as a zombie or something. She said she'd kill me if I ordered that pic!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

TJ,

Gotchya

This is freakish, but phantom pain for missing limbs has been corrected by looking in a mirror (where your mind sees the existing limb as the opposite limb) and corrected all sorts of "phantom feelings" that way -itching, stretching, not sure about pain. Isn't that freakish?

I always tell my feet that they are stupid and there is nothing there, but they refuse to listen. Seriously, I meditate and tell myself to concentrate on calming the pain and telling my nerves that they aren't where they think they are, that they are in a different place now. sigh.

 

[Tfox]

Don't worry Rick. I have had a couple of shots like yours and I do not believe I am heel striking. What you do not see in the photo is your body is moving forward (and probably fast) so by the time your foot touches the ground it is already directly under your body and you end up with a nice midfoot strike.

View attachment 886

I think you're right. I saw a still clip of a video of myself running and it looked like I was just about to heel strike. Then I watched the video in slow motion and my foot actually came underneath my body and I landed on the forefoot. It was very interesting to watch.

 

[jldeleon]

I always tell my feet that they are stupid and there is nothing there, but they refuse to listen. Seriously, I meditate and tell myself to concentrate on calming the pain and telling my nerves that they aren't where they think they are, that they are in a different place now. sigh.

My MT is awesome at talking to the body. The interesting part is, you need to really know the anatomy of the part you are talking to, well, in order to "invite it" to stop hurting you. That is because, in order to visualize the body doing the correct thing, you have to know exactly what it looks like. It's one of many reasons why I study anatomy for FUN. He really, really, really, taught me how to erase all negative words from my internal vocabulary, with regard to my body, and has made a HUGE difference. Occasionally I still catch myself saying "God---- mother----- (insert body part)" lol.

 

[Tristan]

Here is a picture of particularly bad form from one of my last shoddie races last year. I was a bad heel striker.

 

[The Ramzev]

I lost half my thumb in a water skiing accident in 1990, a month before I started my senior year. For a few months it constantly felt like there was something stuck under the nail that was no longer there.

 

[Hope'sMom]

I suspect race photographers time their pics of barefoot runners very carefully, so that they can say "See, look! BF runners heel strike too!" They're paid by the shoe industry, of course.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Ouch, Ram. I have a knot-feeling in the back on my left heel that wasn't there before these last surgeries. I hope it goes away. I can't feel it when I touch it with my fingers, so there's nothing there (unless it's deep), but when I walk, I can feel it. It's so annoying.

Now, see Ram, if that sensation or pain would have continued for you, Dr. Dellon would have opened up your thumb found the nerve that was pressing on whatever it wasn't supposed to be (which was causing the phantom pains) and moved that nerve into muscles where it would stop growing. It's good yours went away.

 

[The Ramzev]

Now, see Ram, if that sensation or pain would have continued for you, Dr. Dellon would have opened up your thumb found the nerve that was pressing on whatever it wasn't supposed to be (which was causing the phantom pains) and moved that nerve into muscles where it would stop growing. It's good yours went away.

I just chewed on it till it stopped.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Seriously?

So you think I should just chew on my toes, and maybe they will stop? I mean I can still put my toes in my mouth if I wanted. Very limber that way. Not that I ever did that before, mind you. I was just a gymnast as a kid, and you get to learn these things, you know.

 

[The Ramzev]

I can still put my toes in my mouth if I wanted. Not that I ever did that before, mind you.

So you know you can still put your toes in your mouth, but you never did it? Begs the question, if you never did it how do you know you can? If I were to prosecution I'd have a field day with that one!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Because, silly. I can put my feet over my head. If I can put my feet over my head, I would "guess" I could put my feet in my mouth. Geez! Silly thing you are. Hee.

 

[Hope'sMom]

I only put my toes in other people's mouths.

 

[ThomDavid]

I'm not very limber at all, but I put my foot in my mouth often and quite easily.

 

[ChasingShadows]

Enough of the pity party. Please enjoy a piece of cake.

You're buying sympathy with cake? You'll find me most symapthetic that way! Seriously though, it sounds like it's going to be a long & painful road to recovery & I'm sure it feels hideously slow but from where I'm sat it's sounding like you're healing at an impressive speed, particularly in comparison to what you've said about the previous hack job the other surgeon did. It's great that you can swim & push yourself with that. Wouldn't be surprised if the meditation/visulisation genuinely helps, but it's not going to be a quick fix.

As to your future excuses, looking forawrd to you being able to blame the exercise induced endorphins!

 

[migangelo]

OMG! Tj,, i need to see that.