Down for the Count

Well ... for the first time in my life, this is my new look:

Ugh.  I made it over 40 years without ever getting a cast, and I decide to have my first one put on 2 weeks and 3 days before I have an out-of-town marathon on the calendar for which I am fully trained.


Here's the "before" when I was in the ortho waiting room:

On the upside, I'm lucky both my husband and my running husband chose purple so I didn't have to explain another color to one of them...

Doctor thinks it's grade 3 sprains (my ankle rolled in and out), but there are two possible breaks based on the x-ray.  He said the best thing to do was cast and immobilize it for a week, then we'll look at it again next Thursday when the swelling has gone down.

He advised I would not be running the Oktoberfest 5k that I love so much this weekend, and that he does not think it looks good for running a marathon in two weeks.  But he wouldn't say it was impossible.  He said he'd never seen anyone fully recover from grade 3 sprains in less than 2 weeks, but he couldn't say it could never happen.  I'm super strong and I think I'll heal fast. 

So I guess I'm just going with an extreme taper? 

No running obviously, and no swimming since I can't get the cast wet.  I might try a stationary bike or an elliptical early next week.  I think I need to do something, but the upside to doing nothing is that maybe I'll gain 100+ pounds this week and my cast will split open -- which will finally allow me to scratch my damn leg and point my damn toe!  Both of which I'm dying to do!


It hurts like crazy, I've taken a double dose of OTC sleeping pills all three nights with no luck, and I don't think I can stand it any more.  I should have asked for pain meds.  Ooops. 


This officially breaks my years-long streak of no significant running injuries. 


So if you don't mind, cross your fingers for a second and hope it's healed by the marathon and definitely that I'm not hobbling through Morocco a month from now...  (not asking for prayers, too many things far more worthy of prayers in this world) (can you tell I've been clicking on sob stories on FB to try to keep this all in perspective?) (honestly, I wasn't in PR shape and it's really not the end of the world).