It wasn't an experiment to see if I could turn into the Hulk or anything. It was just a bone scan.....'just a bone scan'....what a scary set of words. Usually those words are to determine the extent of the spread of a cancer. Praise the Lord that is not what my scan was for. No, my scan was to give my orthopedic doctor a little more detail of the stress fracture in my left tibia....and, more importantly, find out when I can start running again.
I was told to be at the hospital admissions office at 7:30am so i was there a few minutes ahead of time. Shirley admitted me and was a very sweet lady. I was sent to the Radiology department around 7:45am where I sat in a small waiting area by myself for about 20 minutes. The TV was set to CNN and I could only take about 5 minutes of their so called 'reporting'. They spent more time talking about the guy who got Sarah Palin's daughter pregnant than the controversial nominee we now have for Supreme Court Justice. I changed it to ESPN and got a rundown of the current baseball stuff. Someone called my name from around the corner so I got up and met the lady who was going to shoot radioactive juice into my vein. Very nice lady. She explained what she was going to do and that I would only feel the needle. No big...homey has been stuck more times than a pin cushion over the years. What was interesting is the small lead lined box that the syringe was retrieved from. I knew I'd have some radioactive stuff put in there but dagum! Was it so much that it had to be stored in a lead lined box? As she gave me the shot she said i would be radioactive for about 4 hrs and that she prefers to get the scan after 2 hours. I guess my warm glow would be at its peak by that point. :)
After the nuclear juice shot I went back to work for 90 minutes before returning for the actual scan. My lovely bride joined me. The scanning process was interesting. Nothing magnetic like they use for a MRI. Why? Because I was the one emitting the energy! :) I was placed on a table and raised up about 4' off the floor. For a moment I thought I might be a prime candidate for one of those floating person magic tricks. I was told to be perfectly still. A monitor was pulled over near me so i could watch a progress bar on the screen along with a fuzzy rendering of my legs. Three shots were taken from above. Then, I was turned on my side with my legs spread just a little so that both legs showed in the scans. Still not sure why she did both when the orders stated 'left shin'. Anyways, two shots from the side and I was done.
So, I wait until 4:10pm Tuesday, June 2nd. That is my followup with Dr Easom for the results of the scan and the news of how long I must wait before running again.
we'll see.....
Friday, May 29, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Suspicion confirmed
After a 5 week layoff from running I decided to try a few short jogs. They were 800m jogging with 800m of walking in between. The shin would begin to throb immediately as I started the jogging portion. I tried a brand new pair of Mizuno Nirvana 4 (my fave shoe BTW). I left the regular laces in them rather than installing the iBungees that I love. Made no difference. However, the pain remained. This was Saturday, May 16. After this run I sat down to do my icing routine and noticed that an area on the front of my shin was numb. The numbness extended 2-3 inches above and below the primary pain point on my shin. Which, by the way, was easily noted by a butter bean sized knot which has been there since late February.
Monday morning I called my regular doctor to ask if I should see him or be referred to an orthopedic doc. The office called back and referred me to Dr Easom at Middle Georgia Orthopedic. My appointment was scheduled for Tuesday May 19 at 2pm. I had a peace about the visit because I knew I'd finally know for sure what was wrong and looked forward to hearing, one way or another, what was wrong but, moreso, when I could start running again.
I arrived at MidGAOrtho at 1:45 to fill out the paperwork. I was taken back to a small room and asked a series of questions by a nurse. Then, she led me to the xray room where they took two xrays of my left leg. The first was from straight above the leg. The other shot was of the side of my left leg. I went back to the small room and waited about 5 minutes before Dr Easom came in. He and I know each other very well because I have chaired a golf tournament that is in memory of daughter, Macy, whom he lost to pediatric cancer in 2006. He asked me to take him through the last few months of training leading up to Snickers. He asked about the distances of my long training runs and when I think the pains began. After sharing all that he put the two xray slides on the lightbox. He immediately said 'well Tommy...you have a stress fracture in your left tibia...no doubt about it....'. 'He added I'm having you get a bone scan so I can determine the extent of the fracture and then we'll know when you can resume running.'
He was encouraging and said this is a very common injury and that I shouldn't feel that I did anything wrong because this just happens sometimes to distance runners. He turned towards the xrays again and said he was highly impressed by the thickness of the structural integrity of my shin bone and that it was evident I have put in some long mileage. I asked if that was a bad thing and he said 'oh no...its a very good thing...this tells me you have done a good job with your training...' Of course, I had to ask 'ok doc...if i've done such a good job then why?' He laughed and said 'T...this could've started when you went from pavement to grass or grass to pavement one day on a run...you probably didn't feel anything but the initial crack started...'.
So, I have a bone scan on Friday May 29th. I get an injection of some radioactive stuff at 7:30am and then go back at 10am to have the scan done. My followup with Doc Easom is June 2nd at 4pm. At this followup I hope to learn how long before I can begin running.....until then, all i can do is hope and pray it won't be long.
Monday morning I called my regular doctor to ask if I should see him or be referred to an orthopedic doc. The office called back and referred me to Dr Easom at Middle Georgia Orthopedic. My appointment was scheduled for Tuesday May 19 at 2pm. I had a peace about the visit because I knew I'd finally know for sure what was wrong and looked forward to hearing, one way or another, what was wrong but, moreso, when I could start running again.
I arrived at MidGAOrtho at 1:45 to fill out the paperwork. I was taken back to a small room and asked a series of questions by a nurse. Then, she led me to the xray room where they took two xrays of my left leg. The first was from straight above the leg. The other shot was of the side of my left leg. I went back to the small room and waited about 5 minutes before Dr Easom came in. He and I know each other very well because I have chaired a golf tournament that is in memory of daughter, Macy, whom he lost to pediatric cancer in 2006. He asked me to take him through the last few months of training leading up to Snickers. He asked about the distances of my long training runs and when I think the pains began. After sharing all that he put the two xray slides on the lightbox. He immediately said 'well Tommy...you have a stress fracture in your left tibia...no doubt about it....'. 'He added I'm having you get a bone scan so I can determine the extent of the fracture and then we'll know when you can resume running.'
He was encouraging and said this is a very common injury and that I shouldn't feel that I did anything wrong because this just happens sometimes to distance runners. He turned towards the xrays again and said he was highly impressed by the thickness of the structural integrity of my shin bone and that it was evident I have put in some long mileage. I asked if that was a bad thing and he said 'oh no...its a very good thing...this tells me you have done a good job with your training...' Of course, I had to ask 'ok doc...if i've done such a good job then why?' He laughed and said 'T...this could've started when you went from pavement to grass or grass to pavement one day on a run...you probably didn't feel anything but the initial crack started...'.
So, I have a bone scan on Friday May 29th. I get an injection of some radioactive stuff at 7:30am and then go back at 10am to have the scan done. My followup with Doc Easom is June 2nd at 4pm. At this followup I hope to learn how long before I can begin running.....until then, all i can do is hope and pray it won't be long.
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