Injuries suck!

That back pain I mentioned ohhhhhh a month ago in my last blog? Yeah, after several doctors visits and an MRI it turns out to be a herniated disc in the L5 S1 region.  Awesome.  I've been beyond frustrated with my medical care. I know they see these kinds of injuries all the time, and it's not life threatening, but HELLO people! I am in a lot of pain and making me wait 4 weeks to get any kind of treatment really sucks! My toes go numb and I have shooting pains down my leg. I'm pretty sure this isn't normal. I feel like I was left to fix the problem myself and if I didn't advocate for myself I would have slipped through the cracks. 

My PCP referred me to a pain doctor. I left his office and was told they would call me to set up an appointment. A week passed and I still hadn't heard from them and I was on the verge of tears everyday with the amount of pain and discomfort I was in. I finally made a call to them and they were able to get me an appointment for the following day! Go figure. 

The next day I woke up to a nice blanket of snow on the ground and everything was shutting down! It's the end of March in Maine, I guess I had hoped we were past all this. So I ventured into the appointment to find out the doctor wasn't in that day and there was a miscommunication so they would have to reschedule! I was ok until they told me their next available appointment wasn't for another 6 weeks! It was at this point that I burst into tears. I took the appointment and left. I had no energy to fight or argue with them right there. 

I got back to work and got on the phone. I called my PCP to see if they could help....wouldn't you know,  he was on vacation for the next 2 weeks. More tears. The poor secretary got an ear full from me and said that she would call to see if there was anything she could do. About an hour later I got a call back from the pain docs telling me they were able to fit me in the following week.  

Then Jamie and Kate told me about a Sports Injury Chiropractor that they have seen and he treats a lot of runners! I had come to the realization that my training would probably have to slow down, but I'd like to see someone that understands my need to be pain free and to run again. Up until this point I have been getting "well, maybe you need to find a new hobby". 

I called my insurance to find out if they would cover this particular chiropractor, which of course they didn't. The out of pocket costs weren't so bad, so I decided to set up an appointment with him. He was able to get me in right away! YAY!

So I've now been to the pain doc and come to find out my visit with him was just an evaluation. UGH! I need some relief. He recommended a steroid shot which I am scheduled to get next week. Yesterday was my visit with the chiropractor. We spent a while talking and he was less then thrilled with my current treatment. He says "you don't need a pain doctor. those are for people who are 50 years old and have old back injuries! you're young, we need to get you healthy again!" ahhh so refreshing. he put a stop to my running for now, gave me an order for no bending AT ALL and gave me a series of core exercises I need to do daily. I am going back to see him next week after my shot. ANNNNND when I got out of the appointment, his super sweet secretary told me that my insurance WILL cover it and I just need to get a referral from my PCP! major win! 

So maybe things are starting to look up. I'm bummed that I will have to watch the BAA 5K next weekend. I was really looking forward to that. I've got 2 big races at the end of May that I really want to be healthy for so I know I need to rest. 

Speaking of Boston though, I can't tell you how pumped I am!!! Danielle and I are going to spend the weekend there. I finally get to meet Ally, Erin and Morgan plus a whooooole bunch of other sweet running/blogging/tweeting peeps! Sam got Red Sox tickets and ever so kindly invited us to go with him...let's just hope they can pull themselves out of this 0-6 start.