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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
 Posted - 09/04/2011 : 19:33:32
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Here's an irony. As someone who usually suffers from health anxiety rather than physical conditions, I got a disappointing surprise. I was scheduled to run a marathon tomorrow, Labor Day after training for the last couple of months. Instead, I'll be sitting it out because I had a freak accident at home; I stubbed a toe(!) and x-rays show a minor avulsion fracture, where under force, the ligament pulls a tiny chip from the bone. 4-6 weeks healing time.
I've been very depressed about it and unfortunately the depressive's mindset has, for the time, taken over. This means I'm not only depressed and anxious about the toe, but about all the other things in my life. The toe was just the trigger. Amazing how fragile our sanity is.
The crazy thing is that my toe feels normal, no pain, just some bruising and swelling. I almost feel that I would have been better off not having the x-rays and simply running the race because what I wouldn't know probably wouldn't hurt me. I'm wondering if the medical person wasn't being too conservative by telling me it would be risky to run and recommending I simply take off for the next month or so. I think if I didn't have health anxiety in general, I would have taken the risk as I'm sure many (most?) other runners would. On the other hand, I'm more interested in running for the long-term than missing a particular race.
One thing this incident points out is the need to broaden my horizons with more interests and obligations, eg, "get a life." |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 08:34:15
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If it doesn't hurt when you run, or at least hurt *more,* why not run with it? It's a toe. I would absolutely give it a try. Maybe it's a good idea to forego the marathon, but I don't see why you shouldn't go out and run 5 and see how it feels. I've run with all kinds of toe injuries.
I don't see an irony here so much as more of the same. Which is not to say I don't understand it. This is one of the reasons I rarely go to the doctor.
Then again, are you wearing those non-shoe running shoes? Maybe that requires more of a forefoot toe thing. No idea. But again, why not let pain be your guide? |
Edited by - art on 09/05/2011 08:38:11 |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 13:21:56
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"Let pain be your guide." Of course, that makes a lot of sense and I could probably use that strategy, but there's the anxiety part about making it worse, delaying healing. It didn't help that the PA discouraged running with it. After that nocebo injection from the medical authority, hard to resist. But I will have a podiatrist I saw recently for something else take a 2nd look at the x-rays and see if he thinks I need to be as conservative as the first guy. Based alone upon the way it feels, I could go out and run a marathon right now.
The toe aside, the real issue is health anxiety. If it weren't this it would be something else to worry about. This one just happened to be something concrete for a change. More disturbing is that it is never just the issue at hand either; that issue is simply the trigger that gets the worry ship launched. After that, worries about non-health matters of all kinds. |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 14:13:19
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I agree that's the issue. See today's NYT's piece on how clueless physicians really are when it comes to over-use injuries.
Wrld, you are captain of your ship. If I can lessen my health anxiety, anyone can. You just do it. Take a deep breath instead of pursuing some catastrophic thought. Just refuse to take the bait. Life is short. CHoose courage. In the end we're all dead.
It would be a highly unusual situation for you to be hurting something further when the supposed harmful activity is not causing you any pain. Nature's pretty reliable that way.
Of course, I must add I did not go to medical school. So. :>)
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Edited by - art on 09/05/2011 14:22:25 |
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Wavy Soul
USA
779 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 16:29:07
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I didn't go to medical school either, but...
just adding my two cents about the nocebo power of overly cautious doctors. I just got back from UK and was chatting with another dual-citizenship friend about how in the National Health Service they would always reassure you, and you would be fine, because there wasn't all the litigation anxiety that US docs have to deal with. Can't blame them - it's better from their point of view to err on side of caution.
Of course now it's getting the same way in UK because entitled nit-wits are suing the National Health Service.
Oy!
As Art says though, it's just a toe. I once broke a toe because I took a women's self-defence weekend and the supposed rapist coming up behind me pissed me off so badly that I kicked him across the room, as taught, and he was wearing a metal cup. Talk about reservoir of rage - mine even caused a broken toe!
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
Edited by - Wavy Soul on 09/05/2011 16:29:37 |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 19:20:59
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Thanks for the NYT article tip. It dealt mostly with the PRT (plasma therapy) thing, but it made the point. There was a Time or Newsweek cover story a year or two about all the widely accepted treatments, eg ultrasound and TENS that have been used for years have absolutely no evidence that they really do anything. Another article said that docs may be clueless about tendonitis, assuming it is necessarily inflammation and treating with steriods and other anti-inflammatories when it might be something completely unrelated. There is so much we still don't know about the body and when we look back 50 years from now we (not me; some of us) will be astounded at our present ignorance.
Wavy, what you pointed out about the UK Nat'l Health Svc in former times is exactly what I was getting at. My health provider scared me into dropping out of the marathon I trained a couple of months for. Maybe it was unnecessary. How do I know. I can only guess that he was simply being overly cautious, but I have no proof. It's a judgment call unless I can find someone else who is willing to be as honest as the docs in the UK system. |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 09/05/2011 : 19:58:24
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At the very least, you might take your broken toe to one of the big running forums. "Runner's World" I'm thinking of.
I bet you can find runner's who've run through toe injuries. As Wavy implies, there's every incentive for a doc to be cautious. If you feel the need for another medical opinion, maybe you can find a respected sports medicine running doc. 6 weeks is a major layoff. Then you have to negotiate a return to form with the real risk of injury that entails. |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 09/06/2011 : 19:26:48
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| I was right. The PA was too cautious. The podiatrist looked over the x-rays and said I could do all the running I wanted as long as I simply taped the toes. I wish I had known that a few days ago. |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2011 : 05:48:22
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| Glad to hear, but I'm not absolutely sure you can say you were right. You had suspicions yes. You were even pretty sure. But.... |
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wrldtrv
666 Posts |
Posted - 09/07/2011 : 20:06:01
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| Here's another irony, Art. My lower back had felt a little strange the past day or two so I was on guard. Well, tonight I leaned over and felt an excruciating pain and it has been very stiff and painful despite 4 ibuprofen. The same thing happened twice within one week earlier in the year. I know I have a good back so I suppose it is the accumulated stress and maybe some tms. Now, despite being given the green light to run, I suppose I'll have to delay a bit more. |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 05:49:40
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quote:
Originally posted by wrldtrv
Here's another irony, Art. My lower back had felt a little strange the past day or two so I was on guard. Well, tonight I leaned over and felt an excruciating pain and it has been very stiff and painful despite 4 ibuprofen. The same thing happened twice within one week earlier in the year. I know I have a good back so I suppose it is the accumulated stress and maybe some tms. Now, despite being given the green light to run, I suppose I'll have to delay a bit more.
Wrld, I say this with love. JUST GO OUT AND RUN FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
"Accumulated stress and perhaps *some* TMS"?? TMS is always an expression of stress, no matter what model you buy.
As I wrote earlier, you see ironies. I just see more of the same. |
Edited by - art on 09/08/2011 05:52:31 |
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Wavy Soul
USA
779 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 16:42:13
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Symptom imperative really is the funniest thing, isn't it?
My new policy is to roll on the floor laughing when it happens (which is often).
The trick is to catch it, cause it's a sneaky buggah.
Love is the answer, whatever the question |
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art
1903 Posts |
Posted - 09/08/2011 : 17:03:43
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I keep coming back to the bottom line, which is that real or not I no longer have the option of fear. I've damaged myself with too much worry over the years, and I won't do that to myself any more....
That's what this is all about anyway. It's not so that we can get past the symptom of the day (Whew! TMS! Thank God!) in order to continue searching our bodies for the next suspicious ache or pain as if scanning the horizon for an enemy ship. It's so exhausting and worse, self-fulfilling..
To have true and lasting peace, we need to accept the possibility of illness, and injury, and ultimately, death. Sounds dramatic perhaps, but I do believe that's what this is all about for most of us.
The beauty part is that we've now taken the "real or tms quandary" out of the picture to a certain extent. Refusing to provide the fear which gives life to our psychosomatic pain in the way oxygen gives life to fire, the fake stuff melts away anyway...to mix a metaphor or 2 :>)
Choose courage. Life is short. |
Edited by - art on 09/08/2011 18:07:42 |
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Irony
