Disclaimer: You’ll find no credible medical advice here. I have a B.A., I’m no M.D., OK?
Speaking of medical advice, I’ve had it. No more. I won’t listen, not unless you’re the medical professional I’ll be visiting this week.
I listened for two weeks, wincing all the way. So I’m trying a new prescription, a nugget of common sense swallowed with pride. Heal thyself? Forget it. I’m going to the doctor.
A couple of weeks back, on a cold, sunny Saturday, I went for a jog. My toddler was in his stroller. We went several miles, up and down a couple of short hills. Nothing new there. All summer and fall, I walked at lunch. My portly black Labrador and I are devoted to a run/walk regime.
My stamina has improved. I stretch a little and wear decent shoes. That Saturday, I was feeling good about maintaining modest workouts as winter approached.
I was feeling great, in fact, until my feet hit the floor the next morning. Yow — OW — what did I do?
I had to ask. The smart injured jogger would ask someone trained to know the answer. I’m not that smart. I asked everyone but a doctor.
"Shinsplints."
That was the answer I kept getting. The pain is to the outside of my shin, it hurts more than any shinsplints I’ve ever had, but OK, maybe. Although I considered shinsplints a curse of new exercisers, I accepted the mob’s diagnosis.
After a few days of limping and hoping the searing ankle to below-knee pain would take a hike, I consulted a book provided by Aetna US Healthcare, my health insurer. I figure they give it out to keep us away from the doctor, but that’s another story.
The "Healthwise Handbook" says shinsplints develop "after activities in which the legs are overused." The best treatment, it says, involves ice, pain relievers and rest.
Fine. I quit running despite fears of getting grouchy, not to mention fat on Christmas cookies. I took snail’s-pace walks. I iced my leg with a bag of frozen french fries.
The leg still hurt. Other sources were consulted. A marathoner at work told me he runs no matter what the pain. One reporter said, seriously, that frozen peas work better than french fries. A reporter-triathlete scoffed at peas. He uses an Ace bandage with a little pouch that holds ice.
An Ace bandage? Great. I started wrapping it to walk. It still hurt.
Somebody suggested I needed new shoes. A woman at the running-shoe store analyzed my stride. She said to keep running, but offered specific stretches for before and after. I tried one, pressing my toe against a wall. Yow. It still hurt.
Where to turn? The Internet, a place with more advice than you’d ever want, was all the more confusing.
Online, there are shinsplint chat groups, chiropractors and doctors proffering cures, and runners telling sufferers to shun hard surfaces, use ice, use heat and do toe-tapping exercises.
Ow, ow, ow. The leg still hurt.
Other Web sites mentioned electrical stimulation, ultrasound, physical therapy and crutches. Crutches?
That was it. Abandoning all nonmedical experts, I called my doctor. What a concept.
"I’m sure it’s just shinsplints," I said to the nurse on the phone. "But it’s getting worse."
Or, she told me, it might be a stress fracture. Come in, she added, we’ll take a look.
Gee, I’m no doctor, but that sounds like excellent advice.
muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com, write to her at The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206, or call 425-339-3460.
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