Here’s what you missed this week:
The 3rd anniversary of my foot ordeal. Fun stuff.
A doctor’s appointment…from my home office.
My favorite fire-roasted tomato sauce.
And a 32 weeks pregnant update!
50 reasons I won’t share, stumble, like, or RT your content and 5 reasons I will. From Avitable. Read it.
A drinking flow chart for the holiday office party:
Thank you to 2nd.MD for providing me with a $200 stipend to test-drive this revolutionary online medical service.
A few weeks ago I opened my inbox and found an email looking for someone with a personal medical concern or history of medical issues to try out a new service, I nearly fell over in my chair. Yeah, I’d say I have a history of medical concern. 
2nd.md is a way for the average person to have access to top medical specialists without having to wait months for an appointment, having to travel, or even having to leave their home. The service provides online consults through video chat or by phone.
You can search for a specialist by symptom, condition, disease, or specialty, and then select the one that seems most appropriate for your case. If you’re not sure if they can help you, you can send them a brief synopsis and they’ll let you know within 48 hours whether they’re a good match for you.
Once you’ve chosen a doctor, you sign up for an appointment time. The doctor I chose didn’t have any available appointments when I signed it, but I simply sent a request for him to open some up and I was immediately set up with an appointment that was convenient for me.
It was purely coincidence my appointment fell on the day of my 3 year anniversary. {Do you have anniversaries of medical conditions?}
The consults last 20 minutes and cost anywhere from $100-600 {I’m roughly estimating here, don’t quote me}. At first I about choked when I saw that, but it’s actually a pretty good deal when you think about it. I’d owe at least that in insurance fees, and I can guarantee a doctor’s never talked to me uninterrupted for 20 minutes. Not to mention there was no wasted time sitting in a waiting room for a backed up doctor.
I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but I’ve never used my webcam. It was super easy to get everything set up and ready for the appointment- it was pretty much automatically done for me. You also have the option to preload any medical records you may have.
The doctor didn’t have any miracle answers for me {shucks!}, but he did provide a new perspective which is always a good weapon to have in your back pocket. He suggested I double check a couple labs and measurements, recommended a few more I might want to try, and helped brainstorm some alternative treatment ideas.
We also talked about my refusing-to-heal knee and the possibility of it being connected to whatever’s going on with my hands & feet.
Although I was secretly hoping for a mind blowing diagnosis, it was still a good experience. Sometimes you just have this nagging desire to ask a doctor a question and you don’t have that specialist near you or it’s too hard {or too much trouble} to get an appointment. This would be a pretty good option for that type of situation.
It’s not quite the same as a real doctor’s appointment- they can’t touch you to examine you and you can’t skip on down to the lab to get your blood drawn, but it’s an easy way to get a second opinion about a condition or issue you’ve been having. {ALWAYS get a second opinion!!!}
Overall I thought the service was pretty cool, especially as someone who does online counseling. If only I had their technology!
Learn more about 2nd.md with this video.
Don’t miss my 32 week update on tiny sneakers!
Thank you again to 2nd.MD for sponsoring this blog post. Please click here to learn more about 2nd.MD. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. All opinions are my own. #Clever2ndMD #spon
Today’s my last appointment with the knee doctor. Not because my knee’s better, but because The Man says I’m done. And by man I mean insurance.
I feel like I’m breaking up with my security blanket.
Every time I go in, I tell him what hurts and what I did, and he tries to fix it. We both know that he can get my knee in fairly good shape, but as soon as I try to run or bike, it all goes down hill. It feels safe knowing when it’s time to run that someone will be there to put the pieces back together.
Not anymore though. I’m on my own. Yikes.
This doctor was different because he used ART as therapy.
Just kidding. ART as in Active Release Technique.
When I first mentioned I saw this doctor for ART, many of you said ART was magic and provided an instant cure for your injury. Ok you didn’t exactly say that, but you had good results.
While mine aren’t so immediate, I definitely encourage anyone with an injury to look into it as an option.
In my non-professional, uneducated assessment, ART is like a foam roller on steroids. And crack. And heroin. All at once.
The idea of ART is to release the build up of scar tissue, which affects the lengthening of muscles and tendons.
It uses the same idea of trigger point therapy to work out kinks in the muscle and tissue. The therapist digs into the trigger point, then has you move that body part to release the tissue. It’s less strange than I make it sound.
If anybody is certified in ART and wants to move in with me to be my personal ART-ist, I will pay you in brownies and cookies and cinnamon rolls…
I’m 100% serious.
Have you used alternative therapies for an injury?
After 5 months of “wait & sees”, last week I mentioned I found a new doctor.
One that listened. One that looked at my knees. One that watched me run.
One that’s interested in helping me run again.
I’m a little bit in love, so forgive me if I bring him up too often.
Almost everything he’s said has been the opposite of what the sports medicine doc said.
| Doc 1 | Doc 2 |
| Your left knee blows | You right knee’s ridiculous |
| Well, duh, it’s a knee injury | No, it’s actually a hip problem |
| Don’t run, you’ll make it worse. | Run, or I won’t know where it’s hurting |
| Get custom orthotics. Wear them forever & always. | Ditch the orthotics. You can wear them, but not when you run. |
| Stretch, stretch, stretch, & stretch. | Don’t stretch. Stabilize. |
Ding ding ding! Winner is: Doc 2. (Where have you been all my life?!)
I’ve only seen the guy for two weeks and he’s already got me running a mile again. The part that hurts the most? My lungs.
Hello out of shape.
Makes you appreciate how much you can really do when you run half marathons and such.
My December & January races are still cancelled, but I’m already digging through race calendars to figure out what’s next. [I’ve actually already got something up my sleeve…but more on that later. 
]
Maybe I should slow down and just run first.
Playing weekend catch up?
The manly-man’s perfect meal: pimento cheese smothered filet
Turtle cookies: caramel filled chocolate chip cookies (plus an inside look at casa de SoS)
One hundred and twenty eight days.
That’s how long it’s been since I’ve run.
To be honest, excluding a number of bike rides I can count on one hand, it’s the last time I exercised.
(Oh the irony of having a fitness blog…)
My four-month running injury check-in with the sports medicine doc reveals I’m getting closer and closer to a date with a surgeon.
But I’m stubborn, and luckily my doctor went with the flow. He’s giving me four more weeks to get up and running again or it’s time to seriously talk about going under the knife (which I’m against FYI.)
Countless hours of physical therapy, 128 days of rest, anti-inflammatories, ice, orthotics, cortisone injections, and taping haven’t cut it yet, so this time we’re trying a knee brace.
I resisted going for the knee brace because I assumed it would just mask the problem- not cure it. But that list above is getting pretty long, and I have absolutely no desire to add knee surgery to that.
Apparently my 4 month hiatus of pretty much anything physical (per doctors orders…plus laziness + frustration) has left the muscles in my legs so weak the little bit of strengthening I get from physical therapy exercises isn’t doing my knee justice. The best way to rebuild the muscle is to start running again.
Catch 22 huh? I can’t run because a muscle weakness led to knee injury, but my knee injury is preventing me from correcting the muscle weakness…
That’s where the brace comes in. I only need to wear it when I run, and I’ll continue doing all the other therapy so eventually (fingers crossed) I won’t have to wear the brace.
It’s kinda cool as far as braces go- it has a piece of flexible plastic that pushes my kneecap into place.
Doctors orders: today I get to run 1/4 mile. Woohoo. Hooray!!
If I don’t hurt the day after my super long run, I get to run an additional 1/4 mile the next day, with a 1/4 mile walk in between. And so and so on. If it hurts, I can’t pass go or collect $200.
So now it’s time to go for my run. I’m excited. I’m terrified. I’m restless. I’m going!!
Injury talk on SoS.
The path to injury & recovery.
5 ways to get back to exercising after an injury
Stop running injuries before they start
Learn about 3 common running injuries
Hopefully all that talk will end one day soon. I’m hoping the injury finish line is in sight…
And this would be a super appropriate time to say congratulations to all the Chicago 10-10-10 marathoners!! You guys rock! And way to do it without getting injured 😉
