Are You Living It?

Well, I got the bad news this morning. Despite the wet read being negative, the Dr.s found a bulging disk in my lower lumbar spine upon closer inspection. The good news is that it is only pressing on the nerve root that causes pain and numbness…not the nerve root that affects motor ability. The bad news? That could change pretty quickly during running.

After peppering them with questions about the risks, the odds, the remedies, and the scenarios, we’ve decided to move forward with conservative treatment - anti-inflammatories, ice, traction, chiropractic treatment, and no running till race day.

But there will BE a race day.

The odds are pretty significant though, that I may have to walk more than half the marathon, especially if I start to get the foot drop/loss of motor control in the left leg that will occur if the disk impinges upon the whole nerve. Hey, if Rutger Beke could walk half of kona with his head up, I guess I can too.

And if the motor impairment occurs, it should be correctable with conservative treatment, cortizone, or if it doesn’t resolve they will decompress it surgically. But chances are almost nil that irreversible damage will occur - about the same as if I’d never known about this in the first place. And that’s what I have to keep remembering - this could have all happened on race day with no warning and with no plan in place to deal with it…now at least I can be prepared and make educated decisions.

Then again, I may not have any problem at all during the race…the inflammation could go down and this could end up not being an issue aside from pain. Fun little mystery I’ll have to wait till September 7th to answer.

I will find some silver lining to this. Maybe this is the warning shot across my bow to make me baby my screwed up body a bit more. Maybe God wants me to better understand what athletes like Sarah Reinartsen and Blazeman went through. Maybe I just need to be humbled a bit by finishing with folks who are literally just happy to finish.

I have to say it is comforting to a) know this wasn’t/isn’t just in my head, b) know what exactly the problem is and have a coherent plan going forward based on KNOWLEDGE instead of guesses. It doesn’t take all the risk out of the situation, but it does help to minimize and manage it.

Now I just have to think positively, work to heal, and stay in the moment…easier said than done for sure, but essential nevertheless…

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