Wednesday 26 March 2008

A trip to OPSMC

A few morning sessions in the gym on the bike and the rowing machine with some weights to finish the session off, 50 min yesterday & 45 minutes today. A tad more detail; yesterday on the bike for 35 minutes sitting on 75rpm, which ended up with a good sweat, not a bad set. Then onto the rowing machine for 20 minutes. This was my first time ever on a row machine so I just cruised and ended up with a sweat, but nothing special. Finished off with some weigths, upright rowing, shoulder press, bi & tri curls.

This morning again on the bike, I started with an easy 3 miles (not sure why the gym's bike is in imperial measurements) and then selected the road race program at an average of 80rpm for 5 miles (not a constant pace), I struggled more than I would have liked, but I did achieve the end result.
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This afternoon I had my appt at OPSMC, 3:20pm and got in at 4pm....oh well. Straight away the x-rays were put up on the lighted screen and I was shown some spots in my ankle from previous injures and then show the calcification on the heel and some other stuff (too much info). Next the scan; lots of calcification especially in the insertion, lack of blood in the area, still fluid in the heel and also a bit higher up, etc etc. So a quick round up of the x-ray & scan and then Karen read the report, basically she had already stated everything plus more before reading the report.

Options, shockwave theraphy or things that are stuck onto the heel that are used for heart probs or something like that (I've heard of it before), but there are side affects and Karen isn't sold on that treatment. I asked the question, so what would have been the treatment before shockwave theraphy, Karen said; surgery, straight away! So....I will have shockwave theraphy once a week for the next few weeks and see how that goes. Still NO running, no water running, minimal use of the achilles (ie. walking is it but not walking for exercise).

If this doesn't work then surgery will be next. One of the scans shows blood flow in the region, mine was nearly non existant. Of course $$$$ are coming out of my wallet much quicker than I prefer. :(

So, another 3-4 weeks of no running, so the start of the AV XCR08 Series is NOT going to happen for me, first race is the 6k XC relays on 19 Apr.

6 comments:

Tesso said...

Fingers crossed the shockwave therapy works Stu. Sounds like a better option than surgery. And less painful.

Anonymous said...

hang in there Stu,

looks like you are doing all the right things to get running again

Anonymous said...

Bugger - I trust Dr K though, it's all no nonsense with her.

You can always cheer for me over winter, even if I am wearing the wrong colours.

Ewen said...

The dollars will be worth it if it gets you back running - even by mid-season. I hope surgery isn't required.

Whatever you do, don't get caught cheering for the opposition!

Stu Mac said...

I understand what u mean Ewen, but as you would understand, as a lover of distance runners/races, I have to support as many runners as possible.

Yes Em, thankfully I like the 'emerald green' brigade and will happily support, unless a Western Aths uniform is very close.... :)

Ewen said...

That's OK Stu ... but just cheer 'quietly' for the emerald greens and other opposition clubs when Western Aths uniforms are within earshot ;)