OK OK OK....I didn't want to create this post because I don't want to overshadow the post that I just created....so please promise me that if anyone reads this, you'll make sure you scroll down to the next one and let THAT one occupy your mind. I just have to do this because I have to vent.
I posted on a running forum that shall remain nameless, asking how long my particular kind of injury usually takes to heal, because frankly my dear, I feel like it's overstayed its welcome and it needs to go away now.
(Random note: I am an absolute grammar nazi. Notice how I correctly used both forms of its/it's.)
Anyway.....I got some good responses....and then I got this one. I understand that this woman (I can tell by the screen name) thinks she is being helpful, and I may be overreacting, but the response nearly gave me a freaking panic attack. I don't understand how some people are so oblivious to how their comments come across and how unhelpful they really are. (You'd think as a therapist I'd be used to this, but no.) Since I can't type something in response on that forum without it coming across like I'm satan in running shoes, I shall vent here.
What I got in response to my question (and a subsequent discussion with a fellow injured runner about what kind of cross-training we're doing):
I always get sad when I read about stress fracture posts! I've had WAY too many of them. *If it were me*, I would strictly stick to anything in the pool. Skip biking. Be diligent about PT exercises. The tendons have a chance of becoming weak and will hurt when you start to come back....pt exercises will keep them strong.
With your calcium intake make sure you don't drink soda. It will inhibit the calcium intake. Take calcium consistently through out the day, not all at once.
I was out for 12 months if that makes you feel any better! Get better soon!
OK. It seems well-intentioned.....but there is SO MUCH of this that is WTF-worthy!
I always get sad when I read about stress fracture posts! (I had stress REACTION in the title. Then I clarified in the body that I do NOT have a fracture. But that's the least of the WTFness.)
I've had WAY too many of them. (Which makes me super eager to take any advice you may have to give...)
*If it were me*, I would strictly stick to anything in the pool. (I am not you. Nor did I ask. And honestly, sticking strictly to the pool would be a severe enough downfall to my mental-well being that it's not worth it. Not even if I'm prolonging the healing process, which I really don't think that I am, considering I don't do anything that appears to cause pain, nor am I doing anything against professional advice, which I did clarify.)
But the absolute freaking kicker:
I was out for 12 months if that makes you feel any better!
In what universe would this make me feel remotely better?? In the bizarro world where I've decided that I never want to run again??? I think I get what the weirdo is trying to say....I think she's trying to say that I should be grateful and happy that I've only been out for 6 weeks.....but no, I can't even make that much sense out of it.
Seriously, if any of you out there have had an injury similar to mine and you've taken forever and a day to heal, maybe you should just not tell me. And if you DO tell me (because to be fair, I did ask), DON'T for some weirdo WTF-worthy reason think that I should feel better after hearing it!! Don't even think that I would be feeling anything at all other than the deepest depths of despair upon anticipating an entire year of resting an injury.
I thank you all for indulging me in this vent. I do feel better now. I'm not responding to crazy stress fracture woman, nor am I ever going to revisit that forum discussion again, if I have the willpower. I am also putting THAT out of my mind now, and replacing it with a host of new mantras: I will do this. I will get back in there. I will recover. I will recover very, very soon.
Just the fact that she said she's had "so many" means that she clearly doesn't know what she's doing. There's ways to prevent them from happening and I wouldn't take anything she says seriously.
ReplyDeleteYou're doing the right thing, you're keeping up with your PT and your cross-training, and your pool and biking. You're seeing results, slowly, but they're there. Keep your chin up, friend. I know it's hard. She sounds like a moron. Seriously. I can see why you're upset. 12 months?? That seems like a ridiculously long time. But then again, she's clearly VERY prone to injury as she stated and she had no business answering that post.