A Diagnosis

First, I want to thank everyone who has commented over the past few days for their support and encouragement as I’ve struggled with this injury. It means a lot to me, and it helps to hear from others who understand what I’ve been going through. I finally went to the doctor this morning despite my fear that she’d tell me to cut my mileage significantly or–worse–stop running completely for a while. Neither happened! I was diagnosed with hamstring tendinitis, which I had suspected but been a little skeptical about since my pain is not entirely in the back of my leg, but extends around to the inner part of my knee near the front, too. Apparently, though, the hamstring tendons wrap around that way, so it makes sense that I’d have pain there. She didn’t notice much swelling in the knee joint, and she doesn’t really suspect any sort of bone problem, but she ordered an x-ray just to be sure because I was very tender in the medial condyle area of the femur during the exam. I have to go down to the radiology center this afternoon to have that done; it’s a walk-in clinic, so who knows how long I’ll have to wait to be seen. Assuming that the x-ray is clean, I’ll just have to treat the tendinitis with physical therapy and a two-week course of naproxen (500mg twice daily). She referred me to a private physical therapy practice in Center City instead of to Penn’s center because she thought that they’d be able to see me sooner, perhaps within the next couple of days. She also told me that she thinks they’ll be a good match for me, as they have a reputation for being “pretty intense” in their approach. I’m going to call them in a few minutes to make an appointment, and then I’m going to shower and head back to campus to get the x-ray done. All in all, it went better than I expected, and I’m very happy to have a diagnosis at last.

I’m hoping to post again tonight with some photos of the dinner I’m planning to make: pasta with pesto, roasted cherry tomatoes, and white beans, with steamed broccoli and homemade olive & sundried tomato bread on the side. I’ve never made the bread before, but since it’s a quick bread, I feel pretty confident that it will turn out well; I have much more experience with breads of this type than with yeast ones. The recipe is from The Joy of Vegan Baking, for anyone who wants to try it.

Finally, I want to plug a raw food bars giveaway over at The Special K Treatment. K. recently compared Larabars and MacroLife bars and is giving away a sample packet of the latter plus some supplement powders to a lucky commenter on her post. All you have to do is tell her what you think about raw food bars and link back to her post from your blog, so be sure to check it out!

~ by emily on July 8, 2009.