Not Nothing

I got into such a great routine earlier this year of going to morning running classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. They all started between 6:00 and 6:30am, got me into work by 8, and allowed me to balance a baseline amount of running with work and graduate school. Along with basketball and a weekend long run, this was as ideal a scenario as I could expect.

Early on in surgery recovery, fitting in workouts was pretty simple in that I just didn't. I could not think of a cardio workout that didn't involve legs. Now that I'm entering later stages, it's become a more pressing concern to start thinking about what my routine might look like in a few weeks to a month. I know it can't be what it was early in the year. Not yet, at least. But it has to be something because doing nothing is starting to get to me.

One thing that feels pretty good and has not been terribly restricted by the surgeon or physical therapist is walking, so on Saturday I went for a nice, long walk. Walks are probably what I have for the next month-ish, so I guess I should get used to it. The silver lining in all this is I have a NICE view on my walks.

It's something!

Brooklyn Half Blues

Less than 4 weeks after hamstring surgery, even I am smart enough to know I should not attempt something like a half marathon. So, I didn't. And it was a big bummer. My hope, though, is that if I sit out now I can run later. But like, sooner rather than later hopefully.

My wonderful friends all seemed to have killed it, so at least there's that. Look at what Morty did!

I'll see you next year, Brooklyn Half!

It's not all bad news. I got my leg brace off last Wednesday! Freedom! I'm also well into physical therapy now, which seems to be going well. I'm not doing any weight-bearing on the hamstring in question, but most day-to-day activities are very doable. the only exception so far is going up stairs, which I still have to do only with my right leg (and then I pull my left leg up to the step after). This is technically my third week of PT. Three more to go until weight bearing starts and maybe some exercise? I can dream.

Surgery Recovery 2: The Self-Socking

As you may have guessed, I learned how to sock my own foot! Just in time too, because I stopped working from home this week after going for my follow up last Friday. After that, I was able to do the following things:

• Take off the brace during showers
• Take off the brace while sleeping (though I haven't been doing that)
• Work from work
• Schedule a physical therapy appointment

Getting around New York City in crutches is annoying, which is why I was dismayed to hear that I might have to do it for another 2-4 weeks. Fortunately at my PT appointment today, I was told I can stop using one crutch now and hopefully take off the brace next week if all goes well. Apparently my range of motion and strength are good. Things I have learned in phase 2:

• Sitting for too long at a desk is a little painful, but being able to alternate with standing is very helpful.
• I've been using an overturned trash can to elevate my leg while sitting at my desk.
• My left leg is much sadder and smaller than my right. Who knew muscles could atrophy so quickly?

The thing I was not able to solve for a lot of the week was how to bring coffee back to my desk with 2 crutches. I came up with 2 solutions: I got a clampable cupholder for my crutch and also started using only one crutch before getting official instruction to do that (oopsie). 

I also took my first longish subway ride without sitting. Surprisingly, the most uncomfortable thing about it was my right leg getting tired of supporting all my weight.

That's all for now!

Moons Over My Hammy - Surgery Tips!

As an aside, I forgot how much I used to enjoy coming up with fun names for my entries. I've begun to think about them with renewed vigor, so I hope you like this one. Now, gather round, children. Let me tell you some of what I learned about hamstring surgery.

I also want to acknowledge in advance that I've mixed first person ("I did") and second person ("you should") in this post. In the immortal words of Whitney Houston, it's not right, but it's okay.

Prep
In the week beforehand, I tried to do as much internet research as possible. According to the hospital rep, the surgery and ensuing recovery would be long, but not especially difficult. According to the internet, it would be the worst experience of my life. I decided the real story was somewhere in the middle. This guy's blog was extremely helpful. Some things I did to prepare include:

• Canceled travel plans. I had a work trip and high school reunion scheduled less than a week after surgery.
• Canceled my monthly gym membership. I'd started running at a running gym and got into a good rhythm but obviously didn't want to keep paying for a membership I won't use for a couple months.
• Got pre-surgery authorization and tests done. This included a check-up and bloodwork.
• Made arrangements with my dogwalker. My building has 3 flights of stairs, so I had her walk Phoebe for all three walks through the middle of the week, at which point I was able to make it downstairs and take her out for quick bathroom breaks (not long walks, though). 
• Deep-cleaned my apartment. I wanted to have a clean and orderly place since I was going to be stuck. This included doing a lot of laundry.
• Bought a lot of groceries. I was concerned about eating too much and not exercising at all, so I tried to keep it as healthy as possible. I got a lot of spinach and carrots, some frozen dishes, and enough bread, peanut butter, and jelly to make a whole stack of PB&J for easy consumption.
• Made a spare set of keys. This was one of my better ideas, and allowed me to leave keys downstairs for my guests, since my building doesn't have a buzzer and I otherwise would've had to go up and down all the stairs to let them in.
  

Surgery
This is the boring part, since I wasn't awake for any of it. I found what seems to be a surgical procedure paper for what I had. If I'm being honest, I didn't understand most of it but what I did understand was pretty cool. As far as timelines go, my surgery happened around 12pm, finished a little after 2pm, and I got home between 7 and 8pm.

Recovery

Attire:
I went into this thinking I would be living in sweats the whole time, because that's the only thing that fit over this brace. Quickly, though, I realized that was going to be extremely cumbersome and so my uniform became running shorts and t-shirts. In hindsight, I wish I'd thought about what I wanted to be wearing so I could dig up my favorite running shorts and shirts for easy access.

I figured out a lot of things, but how to put a sock on my brace foot was not one of them.

Helpful Items:

• Slip-on shoes - convenient for when you can bend almost not at all
• Grabber - same. Helpful for light switches, dropped phones, trash, etc.
• Extra pillows - I devised a pillow system. There are work pillows, sleeping pillows, and leg pillows. I urge you to think about your pillow system.
• Power outlet - It's 2019 and everything needs to be charged. Get a power strip that's within reach of your arms or your grabber.
• Food - Trader Joe's is your friend.
• Baby wipes - You'll thank me later.
• Shower chair - I think everyone probably has their own shower system. Mine required use of a chair I wouldn't have otherwise expected to purchase for another 45-50 years.
• Paper towels - Optional except if you have a neurotic pet.

These are my early impressions, but I intend to be back with more.

Bonus pic of Phoebe keeping me company

Surgery summary

The surgery was initially scheduled for 12:45 and they told me to be there 2 hours early. If you've read this blog and/or if you know me at all, you will not be surprised to learn that I arrived pretty late, for which I have no excuse. I wore very comfortable clothes and brought my slip-on shoes (see below sections).

A scheduling thing happened so that everything was expedited, and as soon as I got to the hospital there was a flurry of paperwork and meeting people like the surgeon and anesthesiologist. I was attended to by a Russian nurse named Stella who had a spectacular pre-surgery comedy routine and a large male nurse named Vlad, who was "the flipper" since the anesthesia took effect while I was facing up but the surgery had to be face down.

Lessons Learned

I spent 2012 running 2012 miles and training for an Ironman, which left me in the best shape of my life. Sometime in the spring of that year I remember doing my favorite speed workout (half mile intervals) on a treadmill at New York Health & Racquet Club. The usual structure of this workout was a half mile warmup at 10 minutes/mile which led directly into a half-mile sprint at a 7-730 min/mile pace and then alternated with quarter miles at 10 minutes/mile. I tried to repeat this 5-7 times.

Looking back, I now acknowledge that this was a pretty intense workout. It should have come as no surprise, then, when on this particular evening I felt a pop in my hamstring and immediate pain after. I stopped the treadmill for a bit and tried walking, and then stopping it to figure out what might have happened. I even had my friend Jared, who was a personal trainer there at the time, stretch me out (in retrospect, ouch and why).

Taking care of things like this properly is something I've only started learning in the last year or so. If it had happened today, I would have immediately made a doctor's appointment and gotten it checked out. Alas, my solution in 2013 was to KEEP ON RUNNING, BUT SLOWER. This is dumb and I urge you all to take better care of your injuries.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2019. Between 2013 and 2019, my hamstring has continued to hurt at various levels of intensity but the general trend has been that it's increasingly difficult to run at any speed that feels remotely fast. Since January, I'd actually done a great job of getting better about running regularly and devising systems and strategies that made it easier. I signed up to play rec basketball on Saturday mornings, began Citibiking to Mile High Run Club on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, and resuming somewhat regular weekend long runs.

But my old hamstring was having none of it, and flared up in a serious way after the 10k track relay in February. During a basketball game about a month ago, I fell and again felt a popping sensation, and felt immediately like it might be something serious.

A few doctor's appointments and some tests later, I learned I had a complete 3-tendon tear of my hamstring and I was going to need surgery! So that's what I've been up to the last two weeks. I plan to follow up with more thoughts, tips, and tricks that I've learned about hamstring surgery but we'll see!

This sounded...not good