Friday, May 04, 2007
I'm Not Quite Dead
I got good news from my doctors the other day. As far as my feet go, I have plantar fasciatis. (My podiatrist friend in Cleveland is probably saying “duh” right now.) Apparently, I have a high arch, which becomes a normal arch when I put weight on my foot. The result? Bad feet. So my doctor’s got me on a whole routine now to make it all better. Part of that is buying better running shoes.
So I went to Runner’s High in downtown Arlington Heights. I can’t say enough about what a great store this place is. I went on Thursday afternoon when most normal people are working. So I got a lot of personal attention from the owner. She fitted me with a nice pair of shoes and since I was a brand new customer, she threw in a pair of acrylic socks (good for running/cycling, etc.) for free. I signed up for their email newsletter and I might even do their Tuesday night “fun runs.” It’s actually incredibly convenient for me since they’re located about ¼ mile from my train stop.
The news on my shoulder isn’t quite as rosy. Apparently, I have a slap lesion, which isn’t nearly as perverted as you might think. Basically, there’s a tiny ligament on my bicep (yours too, actually) that attaches to my shoulder. I hurt it during my senior year of high school while I was wrestling. But according to my doctor, they didn’t even KNOW about slap lesions then. So I wasn’t diagnosed with it.
The way this works is that most of the time, my shoulder is fine. But if I work it too hard, my rotator cuff gets a bit inflamed. And that in turn causes problems with the slap lesion. So if I don’t tax my shoulder so much, I should be fine. I’m going to start doing some physical therapy on it, and that should make it much better.
By the way, the orthopedist told me that the alternative to physical therapy is to first do a $4,000 test that’s only successful 80% of the time. Then, if I have to have the surgery, that’s $30,000. Now, as I said earlier, I’m not too concerned about costs because I’ve already hit the limit for my plan. These would basically be free for me. BUT, if I had the surgery, I wouldn’t be able to lift anything for 6 months. That includes weights, of course, but also children. (Fortunately, it would also include garbage, but I have a tendency to forget putting that out anyway, so no big change.) After those 6 months, I would be as weak as a baby (as opposed to being weak like a toddler now). So it’d be another 6 months before I got full use back. Um, yeah. I can’t really take a year off like that. Especially not since slap lesions are very easy to live with. In fact, most baseball pitchers have them and it doesn’t bother them at all. So I just have to learn to deal with it.
The good news in all of this is that within the month, I should be back to “normal.” Then I can resume training for the triathlon pretty rigorously. Right now, I’m focusing on biking because that’s more or less all I can do. I’ve been riding my bike to the train every morning (and back at night, of course). It’s 5 miles each way, so it’s quite a nice workout. It only takes me about 30 minutes, which is only about 10-15 minutes longer than it takes to drive.
I’m actually starting to enjoy riding my bike to the train. For one thing, it’s a lot cheaper than driving. My truck gets terrible mileage, about 13 miles per gallon. So each day I go through about $3 of gas plus $1.50 to park. So I could save $22.50 a week riding my bike. Okay, that’s not really a whole lot of money. But after 100 years or so, it really starts adding up.
The real benefit to riding my bike to the train is that I’m now working out an hour every day. That’s why my weight has amazingly been going down lately. I must say that it’s rather refreshing to know that (a) I’m gaining money and (b) I’m losing weight. It’s win-win.
So I went to Runner’s High in downtown Arlington Heights. I can’t say enough about what a great store this place is. I went on Thursday afternoon when most normal people are working. So I got a lot of personal attention from the owner. She fitted me with a nice pair of shoes and since I was a brand new customer, she threw in a pair of acrylic socks (good for running/cycling, etc.) for free. I signed up for their email newsletter and I might even do their Tuesday night “fun runs.” It’s actually incredibly convenient for me since they’re located about ¼ mile from my train stop.
The news on my shoulder isn’t quite as rosy. Apparently, I have a slap lesion, which isn’t nearly as perverted as you might think. Basically, there’s a tiny ligament on my bicep (yours too, actually) that attaches to my shoulder. I hurt it during my senior year of high school while I was wrestling. But according to my doctor, they didn’t even KNOW about slap lesions then. So I wasn’t diagnosed with it.
The way this works is that most of the time, my shoulder is fine. But if I work it too hard, my rotator cuff gets a bit inflamed. And that in turn causes problems with the slap lesion. So if I don’t tax my shoulder so much, I should be fine. I’m going to start doing some physical therapy on it, and that should make it much better.
By the way, the orthopedist told me that the alternative to physical therapy is to first do a $4,000 test that’s only successful 80% of the time. Then, if I have to have the surgery, that’s $30,000. Now, as I said earlier, I’m not too concerned about costs because I’ve already hit the limit for my plan. These would basically be free for me. BUT, if I had the surgery, I wouldn’t be able to lift anything for 6 months. That includes weights, of course, but also children. (Fortunately, it would also include garbage, but I have a tendency to forget putting that out anyway, so no big change.) After those 6 months, I would be as weak as a baby (as opposed to being weak like a toddler now). So it’d be another 6 months before I got full use back. Um, yeah. I can’t really take a year off like that. Especially not since slap lesions are very easy to live with. In fact, most baseball pitchers have them and it doesn’t bother them at all. So I just have to learn to deal with it.
The good news in all of this is that within the month, I should be back to “normal.” Then I can resume training for the triathlon pretty rigorously. Right now, I’m focusing on biking because that’s more or less all I can do. I’ve been riding my bike to the train every morning (and back at night, of course). It’s 5 miles each way, so it’s quite a nice workout. It only takes me about 30 minutes, which is only about 10-15 minutes longer than it takes to drive.
I’m actually starting to enjoy riding my bike to the train. For one thing, it’s a lot cheaper than driving. My truck gets terrible mileage, about 13 miles per gallon. So each day I go through about $3 of gas plus $1.50 to park. So I could save $22.50 a week riding my bike. Okay, that’s not really a whole lot of money. But after 100 years or so, it really starts adding up.
The real benefit to riding my bike to the train is that I’m now working out an hour every day. That’s why my weight has amazingly been going down lately. I must say that it’s rather refreshing to know that (a) I’m gaining money and (b) I’m losing weight. It’s win-win.
