The thin black line

Thanks to everyone for all of your support these last few days.  I'm sure you can imagine how I'm feeling faced with the thought of having to sit out the biggest race of my life after what happened on Friday.  If this whole ordeal weren't so damned funny, I would probably be crying a lot more.  I thought I'd update you on how my appointment went this morning.  It is a good story.

I was slightly concerned that the orthopedic doc I was seeing this morning might be upset that I had taken the cast off Saturday.  Good thing she didn't know I had made it into that fashionable lamp.  She didn't seem concerned about that, especially since she had looked at my X-rays and didn't see any evidence of a fracture.

It's a major award.

She said she had read through my history, and she knew I was an athlete.  She asked me for the low down on the injury, and I gave her the short version.  She started the physical exam by palpating the bone from my ankle up then from the knee down and asked me if I felt any pain.  I told her I did when she got to the place where I feel the pain when I stand on the leg.  She measured this place with a ruler and told me that she would need an MRI to get more information.  Yay!

She then took another look at the X-ray.  I squinted at the thing, straining to find the thin line I had seen Friday night.  I was perplexed.  Had it disappeared?  She zoomed in on the image, and then, there it was, that thin black line.  I pointed it out (yes, I am an idiot).  She said, something about how the ER doctor was pretty perceptive to have found that when both the radiologist and she had not.  She then told me we didn't need an MRI, because I had a complete fracture.  I was in shock.  Really?  But it didn't make sense. I argued all of my points about walking around on it, running on Thursday.  How could it possibly be a full-on fracture?  She explained that stress fractures are different and that they are very subtle on X-rays at first.  Once the bone starts to heal then they show up.  But, she said this line was a clear fracture.  I was stunned and started to feel like she had punched me in the gut.  She said I could get a follow up X-ray on Wednesday, because by then we might see some change in the bone as it heals.

I then started to cry.  I don't cry much but I started telling her about how I needed to be certain about this because I had reservations to cancel and there were others who were making plans to come see me run.  She handed me a tissue and softened a bit.  She said that the best she could do was to get an X-ray on Wednesday.  Luckily, I kept my wits about me rather than succumb to the sorrow.  They had taken 2 X-rays on Friday night from different angles.  I said, "Well, wouldn't you think that, if this was a full fracture, that it would show up in the other X-ray view they took on Friday?"  She told me this was a good point and zoomed in on that image to the place where the line showed up on the other image.  Nothing.

So I proposed that I should get an X-ray today to see whether or not the line showed up.  She repeated that it didn't matter because the bone wouldn't have started to heal.  She finally got what I was saying when I said, "yes, but assume that it's not a fracture for a minute.  If you don't see that line on the film today, then we know that it was an aberration on the image and that it's not a full fracture, right?"  The light bulb went on and she said, "You're right.  I was stuck on it being a fracture and didn't think of the possibility that it wasn't."  She ordered the X-ray.

I sat in the waiting room wondering if I had been a fool to remove the cast and make it into a lamp.  I thought I must be some kind of tough beast to run on a grade 4 fracture.  The doc sent out an assistant to tell me that the X-ray was negative and that radiology would call me to schedule an MRI.  I don't know if the doc just didn't have time to see me, or if she was fed up with me. Perhaps she was embarrassed to be wrong.  She didn't give any other instructions, so I had to ask the assistant to go back and ask if I should stay off of it or not.  I was told I should not bear weight on the leg.

So, I am being good and staying off of my leg for now, waiting to hear about my MRI appointment.  I'm not even attempting any cross training.  It's no fun.  My dogs are pissed off because they won't get their walk today.  Oh well, we'll have plenty of time for that soon, I'm sure.  I will keep you updated as the saga continues...