One of the horrible things about running is that you will get injured and Murphy’s Law will dictate that the injury comes at a time when you are just reaching a milestone.
The thing is, especially in my case, the injury often comes from an activity outside of running. If you was not a ‘runner’ these little injuries wouldn’t affect life that much! Just before Christmas I was running back at half marathon distance, I was running on air and accomplished my own Montreal Half Marathon, a route I was starting to run, alone, at least once a week. Then…. During a game of hockey I fractured my big toe when I decided to use it as a break after a particularly ferocious run for the ball! That injury took until late January to be healed enough for me to run again.
Fast-forward to Late March and the first half of April this year and guess what? I am back to regular half marathon distance. I am clocking more miles in a week than ever before, or rather I should say I was!
Last Sunday, at friends house, I clipped my little toe on the edge of a cupboard. It hurt alot but I thought nothing of it. Then a few minutes later someone said “is that blood all over the floor?”. It was blood, and lots of it from my poor little toe. It turned out I had flipped the nail right off it’s bed and it was just attached at the root!
It hurt on Monday, it still hurt Tuesday but that evening was my normal club run with Auckland Jogging Club. How could I miss out on the 90 minute weekly run I enjoy so much?
So, I decided to run through injury. It hurt but after a few miles of regular pounding my foot became numb to the pain and we completed a 13.85 km run. No PR breaking results but I had a lot of fun. Of course in the shower my toe was hurting but I guess that was to be expected.
That evening, I hurt a lot, I hardly slept and on Wednesday morning my foot wasn’t quite looking right. I ummed and arred about going to the doctors and finally gave in trying to be the hero!
This is what happened!
Yep, that is me hooked up to an IV receiving antibiotics!
During the time in the waiting room red lines started to track up my veins in my foot heading for my leg. An infection had taken a hold pretty badly and the doctor said it was a good job I had decided to get it seen otherwise I could have ended up in a hospital bed.
I didn’t tell him about my run, which was silly of me, but somehow I suspect it was the run that caused such a bad infection.
If only I had been sensible and just kicked back, kept the wound clean and not put any pressure on it.
It’s now Monday, just over a week from the injury and I am in bed, leg raised and on oral penicillin until mid week. The infection should clear up fine but i’ll probably lose my nail.
You won’t see me running though until the time is right and I am injury free.
I hope the moral to this story is clear!
Now, tell me about the times you have continued running despite injury.
I hope you’ll feel better soon and you’ll be able to start running again very soon. I have never had this kind of situation when I was running despite injury but I remember one time when I was rock climbing in Switzerland when I had advanced symptoms of angina infection. Not something I’m proud of but honestly… I don’t regret it
Good luck with your recovery!
Yikes, I hope you are ok now! I am fine now and back to a reasonable running schedule.
I don’t run as regularly as I probably should, but this is something to definitely keep in mind. Thanks for sharing, and I hope your foot is doing better now!
Thanks Grady, my foot is much better now thanks, a new nail has finally grown.
Wow, that sounds like the signs of Septicemia! Potentially extremely serious. Good thing you got that checked out right away! (Found you on Healthy Buzzing.)
Hey Allen, thanks for stopping by. I definitely did the right thing by getting it sorted.