A "hip issue"

I don't know if you remember my "hip issue" that I had last summer, well, I've never thought it totally went away, although my hip feels better, it hasn't been very flexible no matter how much I stretch it.  And I've had an ache in my thigh on the same side for a little while, which I attributed to my tight hips.  I just figured I had knots in my hip that were pressing on a nerve, so I've been "rolling" it with a lacrosse ball against a wall.

I decided I should get it looked at to make sure it wasn't something more serious.  I was thinking cancer.  So this week I went to the doctor and she ordered some x-rays on my leg.  Yesterday I heard back from the dr's office . . . my leg is fine.

However, the x-ray caught my hip and a small part of my lower back.  I have "mild osteoarthritis" in my hip.  And something called pars defect.  After lots of time on google, I discovered that pars defect is caused by a stress fracture in your lower back.  There is a thin bone that can be broken and if not treated right away it doesn't heal correctly.

The "spondylolsis" is just the fancy word for the stress fracture.  The "spondylolisthesis" is how it heals if not treated.  The biggest incident I remember, where I always said I "cracked my tailbone" was one time when Damian was very young, 3 or 4, and I was not with my husband.  He was in a timeout in his room and I was sitting at the top of the stairs listening to him cry.  I decided to sneak down the stairs and was trying to tiptoe, well, my toes missed the second from the top step and I went airborne and landed on the third from the bottom step on my backside.  I had just gotten a job and didn't have insurance, so I didn't go to the doctor.

Well, over time the vertebrae that was fractured starts to slip forward, which can cause all sorts of problems, including, you guessed it, a pinched nerve. 

The white line indicates the vertebrae
that has slipped forward. (not my x-ray)

The most common symptom is lower back pain, which I don't have, but according to what I've found online other symptoms are leg pain, numbness, and/or weakness. 

Anyway, what I've seen online for treatment is surgery if it's bad enough.  They would fuse my vertebrae together.  The good news about this is that (again according to the internet) full recovery is often achieved. 

So at this point, I don't know where I stand with all this information.  This is all stuff I found online.  I had to go back to get another x-ray on my back, the first one wasn't for my back, it was for my leg, it just happened to catch my lower back.  I went yesterday for that x-ray and I probably won't hear anything till next week.

And honestly, at this moment, I don't know whether to be more concerned with the pars defect or the arthritis.  If the pars defect can be fixed, then the arthritis is the more serious condition. That won't get better.  All of this will affect my running.  Which really has me depressed. 

the last 3 weeks

Wow, my last post was on 5/16, that's 3 weeks ago.  Huh, well, I haven't had a lot to say lately, as I've said before.

I did start running again in May, which I think I covered already.  I hit 54 miles for May, so that's pretty good. If I plan to do the Tri-Cities marathon again this year, then training starts at the end of June.  I have to be up to 8 miles for my long runs by the first week.  I am currently running about 5 miles for my long runs, I think I can easily get up to 8 by the end of June.  I do want to start some speed work, I haven't been very fast, I actually feel like I'm getting slower. . . but the whole reason I want to do the marathon again this year is to get under 4 hours, and that will mean speed work.  I'm currently averaging just under 10 min miles, somewhere around 9:45 or 9:50.  I just need to go run some hills.  ; )

We won't even talk about my monthly goals.  I pretended to continue to care about them through April, but didn't have any heart in it.  When an important person in you life dies, the little things quit mattering so much.  However, I did do two things . . .

I scheduled a dr appt for my leg.  It is still bothering me, what I called a "hip issue" last summer, is more of a "leg/thigh issue."  I have stretched, and I have rolled, and it hasn't really helped.  I just want to make sure it isn't a really serious issue.  If I knew what it was and knew for sure how to fix it, I would be okay with it.  That appt is next week, so we'll see what happens.  I'm sure I'm gonna have to get a MRI or x-ray or something.

And the other thing that I did was I went for a hike with Damian on Memorial Day.  It was the perfect day for a hike, cool and not too hot.  We went up to a lake that a friend of mine recommended, it was about 7 miles round trip.  Damian brought his collapsible fishing pole and hammock.  He fished, I hammocked.  =)  Although, it was in the shade and I was freezing, so didn't stay in the hammock for long.  Plus the lake was full of submerged trees, so he was afraid of snagging his hook.  Which he did on his last cast and lost his hook.  Oh well, it was still fun. 

We had lunch on top of a giant rock.  It doesn't look like it,
but we are way up off the ground.  In fact, our legs were
dangling over a very large drop while we ate.

I almost forgot, while we were hiking up Damian had to stop to adjust his pack.  While he was doing that he looked over at a stump he was next to and said "there's a bottle in there."  When he moved I went to look and there was definitely something in the stump.  I wanted to see what it was, so I pulled it out (hoping it wasn't someone's drug cache).

Turns out it was a geocache.  =)  I thought that was pretty cool.  My parents (well, now just my dad) do it, so I knew what it was.  I really, really wanted to write my Mom's geo name on it, but we didn't have a pen.  So we folded it back up and put it back where it belonged.  If we ever do that hike again, I will bring a pen, although my Dad asked me to put his name on it, so I will.

Last weekend was the Insane Inflatable.  We signed up for this in October with my Mom, so it was pretty hard to do it this year.  I really didn't feel like it, but I had fun anyway.  Maddox enjoyed it too, so that's what matters, right?

All of us

Those that are participating

my niece

 

The kids in the red shirts are my niece (very back) and nephew
with his girlfriend.

My sister's husband (aka our waterboy)

That's us at the finish line.

It was fun but we probably won't do it again.  My Mom isn't here and my other sister didn't do it this year either because she was just diagnosed with degenerative arthritis in her back, and has been in a lot of pain. 

After we were done with everything (we also had dinner with my aunts and uncles for an aunt's birthday) my dad and I went to the cemetery to visit my Mom's grave.  I haven't been there since her funeral and they put up her headstone right before Memorial Day.  I wanted to see it and I didn't, so I went.  It was a hard one, I won't lie.

My dad left some petunias on her headstone (I know it's a terrible picture) but while we were standing there a hummingbird moth came by and visited.  It's kinda funny because my dad and I were talking earlier in the day about the hummingbirds and the hummingbird moths that come to their house.  My mom loved petunias and she loved the hummingbirds and the moths.  Anyway, the hummingbird moth is in the picture, which you can't see very well.  I wish it was a better one, but oh well.